Full name: Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight

Author: Pat Shipman Year: 1998 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Non Fiction, Animals Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780684849652 0684849658

In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, a scientist named Hermann von Meyer made an amazing discovery. Hidden in the Bavarian region of Germany was a fossil skeleton so exquisitely preserved that its wings and feathers were as obvious as its reptilian jaws and tail. This transitional creature offered tangible proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. Hailed as the First Bird, Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates for the last 140 years. Are birds actually living dinosaurs? Where does the fossil record really lead? Did flight originate from the "ground up" or "trees down"? Pat Shipman traces the age-old human desire to soar above the earth and to understand what has come before us. Taking Wing is science as adventure story, told with all the drama by which scientific understanding unfolds. Similar books: Beasts of Eden by David Rains Wallace The Crucible of Creation by Simon Conway Morris The Story of Life in 25 Fossils by Donald R. Prothero Extinction by David M. Raup Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould At the Water's Edge by Carl Zimmer Dinosaur Odyssey by Scott D. Sampson Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons by Christopher McGowan Where the Animals Go by James Cheshire Life on Earth by David Attenborough National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America by National Geographic Society The Wisdom of Wolves by Jim Dutcher Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel Cradle of Life by J. William Schopf Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich The Thing with Feathers by Noah Strycker The Ghost with Trembling Wings by Scott Weidensaul The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman