When and where did the ancestors of modern birds evolve? What
enabled them to survive the meteoric impact that wiped out the
dinosaurs? How did these early birds spread across the globe and
give rise to the 10,600-plus species we recognise today from the
largest ratites to the smallest hummingbirds? Based on the latest
scientific discoveries and enriched by personal observations, The
Ascent of Birds sets out to answer these fundamental questions. The
Ascent of Birds is divided into self-contained chapters, or
stories, that collectively encompass the evolution of modern birds
from their origins in Gondwana, over 100 million years ago, to the
present day. The stories are arranged in chronological order, from
tinamous to tanagers, and describe the many dispersal and
speciation events that underpin the world's 10,600-plus species.
Although each chapter is spearheaded by a named bird and focuses on
a specific evolutionary mechanism, the narrative will often explore
the relevance of such events and processes to evolution in general.
The book starts with The Tinamou's Story, which explains the
presence of flightless birds in South America, Africa, and
Australasia, and dispels the cherished role of continental drift as
an explanation for their biogeography. It also introduces the
concept of neoteny, an evolutionary trick that enabled dinosaurs to
become birds and humans to conquer the planet. The Vegavis's Story
explores the evidence for a Cretaceous origin of modern birds and
why they were able to survive the asteroid collision that saw the
demise not only of dinosaurs but of up to three-quarters of all
species. The Duck's Story switches to sex: why have so few species
retained the ancestral copulatory organ? Or, put another way, why
do most birds exhibit the paradoxical phenomenon of penis loss,
despite all species requiring internal fertilisation? The Hoatzin's
Story reveals unexpected oceanic rafting from Africa to South
America: a stranger-than-fiction means of dispersal that is now
thought to account for the presence of other South American
vertebrates, including geckos and monkeys. The latest theories
underpinning speciation are also explored. The Manakin's Story, for
example, reveals how South America's extraordinarily rich avifauna
has been shaped by past geological, oceanographic and climatic
changes, while The Storm-Petrel's Story examines how species can
evolve from an ancestral population despite inhabiting the same
geographical area. The thorny issue of what constitutes a species
is discussed in The Albatross's Story, while The Penguin's Story
explores the effects of environment on phenotype in the case of the
Emperor penguin, the harshest on the planet. Recent genomic
advances have given scientists novel approaches to explore the
distant past and have revealed many unexpected journeys, including
the unique overland dispersal of an early suboscine from Asia to
South America (The Sapayoa's Story) and the blackbird's ancestral
sweepstake dispersals across the Atlantic (The Thrush's Story).
Additional vignettes update more familiar concepts that encourage
speciation: sexual selection (The Bird-of-Paradise's Story);
extended phenotypes (The Bowerbird's Story); hybridisation (The
Sparrow's Story); and 'great speciators' (The White-eye's Story).
Finally, the book explores the raft of recent publications that
help explain the evolution of cognitive skills (The Crow's Story);
plumage colouration (The Starling's Story); and birdsong (The
Finch's Story)
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