Writer: Steve Brusatte
Country of Origin: U.S.A
I’ll try to keep this one short. Given that I’m laser-focused on one particular aspect of this book, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. We’ll see, though.
Unless you’ve been living in seclusion in a ramshackle but nonetheless charming little cabin deep in the woods for the past couple of decades, and assuming you have at least a passing interest in birds, there’s a decent chance you’re aware of a certain well-known fact about modern birds.
Namely, that they’re dinosaurs.
The theory linking birds and dinosaurs has been around for much longer than most people realize. The idea was first proposed by one of Charles Darwin’s greatest defenders, Thomas Henry Huxley.
In the 1860s.
Yes, you read that right. 18. 60s.
This of course was in the decade immediately following the publication of Darwin’s groundbreaking On the Origin of Species (1859). Based on fossil evidence at the time, Huxley was simply taking Darwin’s work to one of its many logical conclusions. Today it is a widely accepted and wholly undeniable biological and evolutionary fact that birds are dinosaurs.
Specifically, they’re the only living members of the theropod clade. A couple of long-extinct theropods that you just might have heard of: Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus.
Yup, those fun and frolicsome Jurassic Park/Jurassic World faves are long-lost cousins of that Blue Jay loudly calling out in your backyard.
For the record, there were two other dino clades: the ornithischians (e.g. Triceratops; Stegosaurus) and the sauropods (e.g. Brontosaurus; Brachiosaurus). There are no living specimens of either of these clades. In light of what human beings have done to birds and bird populations over the past few centuries…that’s probably for the best.
I’ve loved dinosaurs for as long as I can remember. Some of the first books I ever owned were books about dinosaurs. I had a Little Golden Book about dinosaurs which, much like the dinos themselves, has been lost to time. I also had this one:
When I say ‘this one’, I really mean this exact copy. It’s seen better days, but somehow this informative little book has survived the past fifty or so years with me and is now kept safely stashed in my book collection.
One of my very earliest memories is of having one or the other (the Golden Book, I think) of these books read to me by the then-girlfriend of one of my brothers. I was maybe two or three years old at the time.
Birds I’ve loved for just a few years, but that love is deep, unwavering, and now consumes a good chunk of my waking life. The knowledge that birds are dinosaurs is like having the proverbial cherry on top of the most perfectly concocted sundae of all time.
Which is why the chapter entitled ‘Dinosaurs Take Flight’ in Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs kind of irked me. Not the whole chapter, by any means. Just certain little bits here and there.
As a way to launch into his discussion of the evolutionary relationship between birds and extinct dinosaurs, Brusatte begins the chapter by describing one of the many seagulls he frequently encounters in his home city of Edinburgh, Scotland.
And yes, he refers to the bird as a ‘seagull’. Talk about disappointing.
Like, what the hell, dude? You know there’s no such bird as a seagull, right?
There are Ring-billed Gulls. Great Black-backed Gulls. Iceland Gulls. Ross’s Gulls. I could go on and on, there are so many kinds of gulls spread across our planet.
But seagull? Nope. Not a real bird.
Adding insult to injury, Brusatte then refers to seagulls as pests.
Are you kidding me!?
Seriously, how is it possible that a fairly renowned paleontologist could be that woefully ignorant of modern biology, ecology, ornithology, and birds in general. While at the same time devoting an entire chapter to their ancient origins. Are the sciences really that siloed? Or is Brusatte simply uninformed?
At any rate, I just don’t know about this guy.
He has a new book coming out at the end of April: The Story of Birds. The subtitle is ‘A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present. Given the exploding popularity of birds and birding in recent years, I fully expect sales of this book to be through the roof. I’ve already pre-ordered it. Obviously.
Brusatte better watch out, though. I’ll be holding his feet to the fire as I’m digging through it. I really hope he’s done some serious homework on this topic in the years since TRAFOTD was published. One little slip-up and I’ll most assuredly be fuming quietly over here along with all the other birders.
By the way, don’t take the preceding rant too seriously. These are just the silly first-world complaints of a bird-obsessed mind.
Ok, done! A few more words than I had planned for, but so be it.
Later, folks!
