How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives & Diversity

Douglas J. Futuyma is a distinguished evolutionary biologist based at Stony Brook University, New York. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of numerous honors, he is perhaps most known for his widely used college level text Evolution as well as for other books dealing with evolutionary biology. He is not an ornithologist but most certainly qualifies as an avid birder who has traveled widely in the world specifically to enjoy birds, a point he makes throughout this book. How Birds Evolve is a concise but nonetheless sweeping review of much of what is presently known about avian evolution as it relates to almost all facets of avian natural history. The book breaks no new ground nor is it meant to as it is written for a general audience. What Futuyma accomplishes is a succinct but masterful account that fully engages the reader. Futuyma presents numerous questions...