Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight
by Pat Shipman
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In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's 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 First Bird by its champions and dismissed by detractors as just another ancient show more reptile - or even a grand hoax - Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates in the scientific community for nearly 140 years. In Taking Wing, Pat Shipman offers a compelling account of how scientific thinking about the mysteries of flight developed up to the present day. Flight, it seems, evolved three times - in birds, bats, and pterosaurs. Shipman's story unfolds twice - through the braided tales of the evolutionary record and the scientists who have so painstakingly pieced it together. show lessTags
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A delightful book about the evolution of bird flight, and the disparate views of how flight arose. The author details the differences between ornithologists and paleontologists, and is not afraid to take sides, presenting the argument for why she should prefer one side over the other. Nice discussion of the fossils, and how we came to recognize the fact that archaeopteryx had feathers.
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Author Information
16 Works 1,489 Members
Pat Shipman is retired Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. She is the coauthor of The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and Natural history of Proconsul (Harvard).
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- Languages
- Chinese, English
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- ISBNs
- 5
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