All articles tagged with #steve brusatte
FT’s Dylan Neri reviews Steve Brusatte’s The Story of Birds, arguing that birds are dinosaurs and tracing how a coelurosaur lineage led to modern birds via feathers, flight, and endothermy, anchored by Archaeopteryx; the book offers an accessible, evidence-packed narrative that makes a compelling case for evolution, even if occasionally the prose leans toward familiar authorial flair.
In a Live Science interview promoting his new book The Story of Birds, paleontologist Steve Brusatte argues that birds are true dinosaurs and that their distinctive features—feathers evolved first for warmth, not flight; lightweight bones and strong flight muscles; and rapid growth—helped the avian line survive the mass extinction 66 million years ago. He explains how pterosaurs and birds coexisted for millions of years, why only modern, beaked, fast‑growing birds endured, and how seeds likely supported post‑asteroid survival. Today, birds face declines from habitat loss, pollution, and climate change, but conservation successes like bald eagles and California condors show resilience, fueling his optimism that birds may endure humanity’s impact—perhaps even longer than our species.