The Story of Birds — the mystery of their evolution from dinosaurs

{"text":[[{"start":6.8,"text":"Birds are dinosaurs. This is one of those facts that you are sure is true but are not entirely sure why. The problem is this: the theory of evolution is deceptively simple. Like all great scientific theories, its genius is hidden beneath a superficial layer of accessibility (perhaps none more so than evolution), and to understand it fully requires careful extrication by a talented and experienced guide. "}],[{"start":33.1,"text":"Steve Brusatte, a professor of palaeontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh, is abler than most to construct a readable narrative out of a seemingly insurmountable agglomeration of facts. Take his The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (2018): 250mn years and hundreds of thousands of characters condensed into one volume of some 400 pages. In his new book The Story of Birds, he repeats the trick, and manages to “organize and focus 150 million years of evolution into a coherent story”. "}],[{"start":64.75,"text":"Of course, it helps that dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating. Put the facts in any order and people will read them. You may ask whether we need to know about the dinosaurian ancestry of birds to appreciate them. But this is no shameless exploitation of our fascination with monsters and mystery. Why? First, because the fact that “the leg of a barnyard chicken is a miniature version of any T. rex leg you see in a museum” is nothing less than incredible. Second, advances in the field of genetics mean that scientific speculation about the fossil record is becoming less hedged, thus enriching the present research, as this book shows. "}],[{"start":101.65,"text":"An obvious question presents itself: what is a bird? Here the complexity and simplicity of evolution meet. Sure, “if you were to ask this question about living animals, the answer would be obvious”. But things “start to blur when we look back into the fossil record”. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":117.35000000000001,"text":"The important thing “is the process of evolution . . . in which one subgroup of small dinosaurs developed the ability to flap their wings, overcome gravity, and ascend into the skies, and then — unlike all other dinosaur groups that had feathers and might have independently evolved flight — survived”. It is in this sense that birds are dinosaurs. Thus the many characteristic features of modern birds — intelligence, complex social structures, feathers, flight, song — can be traced back to this dinosaur subgroup, the coelurosaurs. In particular to the “matriarch of all birds alive today”, the 150mn-year old archaeopteryx. "}],[{"start":156.75,"text":"From this “oldest and most primitive species of true bird”, Brusatte explains how this seemingly insignificant line favoured feathers and smaller bodies, thus beginning the “march to endothermy”. That is, to the warmbloodedness and consistently high metabolic rate unique to birds and mammals. An evolutionary advantage that (perhaps) explains “one of the most exciting mysteries in paleontology”: why some birds survived when other dinosaurs died. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":184.6,"text":"Yet survive they did, and what a story: they became the superior intelligence in the immediate post-dinosaur world; defeated the reptilian pterosaurs and gained aerial dominion; in some cases returned to land (eg, ostriches) or to the water (eg, penguins); and continually redefine our encrusted standards of non-human ingenuity. "}],[{"start":206.54999999999998,"text":"That there is still any doubt about the origins of birds, as Brusatte suggests, seems little more than a (reassuring) sign of human perversity, such is the weight and variety of evidence — although he does not offer any alternative arguments. Even poor arguments would be enjoyable, and surely worthy of discussion. After all, falsification is the essence of science."}],[{"start":228.24999999999997,"text":"The popular appeal of Brusatte’s work might have something to do with this absence of debate. Simplicity is his skill but at times it reads rather like a children’s book. Especially when he offers us his speculative fiction. Great synthesiser of evidence, yes; great writer of unimaginative cliché, also yes (“with a burst of energy, the dinosaur leapt from its hiding place”)."}],[{"start":251.24999999999997,"text":"But these are minor grievances, and I am not a best-selling author. Besides, any serious book about the wonder of evolution is worth your time, such are nature’s “endless forms most beautiful”; and birds are indeed “some of the most remarkable creatures that have ever lived”. Oh, and they are dinosaurs, you know."}],[{"start":270.54999999999995,"text":"The Story of Birds: An Evolutionary History of the Dinosaurs that Live Among Us by Steve Brusatte Picador £25, 448 pages"}],[{"start":280.69999999999993,"text":"Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and follow FT Weekend on Instagram, Bluesky and X"}],[{"start":297.6499999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780712392_2645.mp3"}