The Ascent of Birds: How Modern Science Is Revealing Their Story

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78427-203-6
Verlag: Pelagic Publishing Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 340 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 600 g

Reihe: Pelagic Monographs

When and where did the ancestors of modern birds evolve? How did these early birds spread across the globe and give rise to the 10,600-plus species we recognise today? Based on the latest scientific discoveries, The Ascent of Birds sets out to answer these fundamental questions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Reilly, John

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Biogeographie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Wirbeltiere (Vertebrata) Vögel (Ornithologie)
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Tierethologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Timeline

- Geological Ages

- Prologue: Evolution of an Idea

PART ONE: NON-PASSERINES

1. The Tinamou's Story: Death of a Paradigm

2. The Vegavis's Story: The Cradle of Modern Birds

3. The Waterfowl's Story: Refugia, High Living, and Sex

4. The Hoatzin's Story: An Improbable Voyage

5. The Penguin's Story: Phenotype and Environment

6. The Storm Petrel's Story: Sympatry versus Allopatry

7. The Albatross's Story: The Species Problem

8. The Godwit's Story:Quantum Compasses

9. The Buzzard's Story: Accidental Speciation

10. The Owl's Story: Nightlife

11. The Oilbird's Story: Evolutionary Distinctiveness

12. The Hummingbird's Story: A Route of Evanescence

13. The Parrot's Story: Vicariance and Dispersal

PART TWO: PASSERINES

14. The New Zealand Wren's Story: A Novel Foot

15. The Manakin's Story: Why so many Suboscines?

16. The Sapayoa's Story: Odd One Out

17. The Scrubbird's Story: Where Song Began

18. The Bowerbird's Story: Extended Phenotypes

19. The Crows' Story: Cognitive Skills

20. The Bird of Paradise's Story: Sexual Selection

21. The Starling's Story: Structural Colours

22. The Thrush's Story: Sweepstake Dispersals

23. The Sparrow's Story: Hybridisation and Speciation

24. The Zebra Finch's Story: Evolution of Birdsong

25. The Crossbill's Story: Adaptive Radiation and Coevolution

26. The White-eye's Story: Supertramps and Great Speciators

27. The Tanager's Story: A Final Flourish

Postscript: The Sixth Extinction

Appendix 1: Glossary

Dramatis Personae

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Professor John Reilly has been a keen birder all his life, visiting over fifty countries and observing nearly half the world's bird species. In the late 1970s, he led several pioneering bird and wildlife tours to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. Since developing an interest in avian evolution, he has concentrated on tracking down and photographing species that have important evolutionary stories to tell, birds that provide the key characters for each of the book's chapters.

After graduating in biochemistry and then medicine, John worked as a consultant haematologist in Sheffield for 25 years. In addition to teaching, lecturing and clinical work, he led an active research programme into the causes and treatment of various blood cancers, authoring over 200 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.

John's medical and scientific career, and time spent as a bird guide, enable him to present complex scientific concepts to the non-specialist - whether in the field of leukaemia or the evolution of birds.

In 2014, he retired from the NHS to concentrate on travelling and writing. This career change was encouraged by the success of his first book, Greetings from Spitsbergen: Tourists at the Eternal Ice (2009) published by Tapir Academic Press. In 2013 he established Svalbard Press, with the aim of publishing the histories of different countries as revealed by their early postcards. The first volume in the series, Spitsbergen's Early Postcards: an annotated catalogue, was published in 2014. Further volumes on Papua New Guinea and Greenland are in preparation.