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Rise of birds (1 Viewer)

Daniel Philippe

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Chatterjee S., 2015. The rise of birds - 225 million years of evolution. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press Baltimore: i-xvi, 1-370.

I haven't read it yet, but it looks interesting.
 
Well,

If it's anything like his 1997 book with the same title (hopefully updated) that is mainly on Protoavis texensis Chatterjee, 1991, I would not recommend it.

P. texensis is excepted as a bird by only a few paleontologists and ornithologists.


Fred
 
Contents:

1 Mesozoic Pompeii 1
2 The Evolution of an Airframe 9
3 The Origin of Birds 19
4 Archaeopteryx: An Ancient Wing 57
5 Protoavis: A Precocious Triassic Bird 72
6 Basal Avialans: The Long-Tailed Birds 106
7 Pygostylia: The Short-Tailed Birds 113
8 Enantiornithes: Global Cretaceous Birds 123
9 Ornithuromorphs: The Prelude to Modern Birds 140
10 The End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction 158
11 The Avian Revolution Begins 175
12 The Origin of Flight 213
13 Eggs, Embryos, and Heterochrony 265
14 Feathers and Footprints 287
15 The Feeding Mechanism and Cranial Kinesis 304
16 Birds and Humans 333
Bibliography 343
Index 361
 
Contents 1997:

Foreword
Preface

Chapter 1 From Protoavis to Pigeon : 1
Chapter 2 The Design af an Airframe : 11
Chapter 3 The Triassic Treasures of Texas : 28
Chapter 4 A Portrait of Protoavis : 43
Chapter 5 The Jurasic Birds : 82
Chapter 6 The Birds of the Early Cretaceous Period : 99
Chapter 7 The Birds of the Late Cretaceous Period : 107
Chapter 8 eggs and Embryos, Feathers and Footprints : 122
Chapter 9 The Origin of Flight : 139
Chapter10 The Genesis of Birds : 189
Chapter 11 The Cretaceous Crisis : 231
Chapter 12 Recovery Duyring the Tertiary Period : 249
Chapter 13 Birds and Humans : 273
Biblography : 285
Index : 301

It seems Chatterjee, 2015 is different from Chatterjee, 1997, at least it hase more pages. I still will not buy it, but I will look in my library for it.
 
Reviewed by Christopher Perrins: Ibis 158(2): 453–454. [article & pdf]

Well, it seems Chatterjee rewrote his book and I am glad to see that he mentions large numbers of names of unknown (to Perrins) species and higher taxa, very detailed descriptions (though with clear drawings) of skeletal material. It makes clear that Perrins doesn't follow avian paleontology very closely, so I wonder why he was asked to write this review.

That said, the review does raise my interest in the book and I will read it as soon as I have a copy of it.

All the best,

Fred
 
My thoughts exactly!

Keep in mind that Chatterjee's description of Protoavis texensis Chatterjee, 1991 fron the Triasic of Texas (225 Mya), probably not ercen a Bird but a Dinosaur and his discription of the supposed Gaviidae Polarornis gregorii Chatterjee, 2002 from the Cretaceous of Antarctica (65 Mya) are very controversial (perhaps not a Gaviidae) (the only birds described by Chatterjee alone), the only other bird described by Chatterjee he described with Evgeny Kurochkin and Konstantin Yevgenye Mikhailov is Gobipipus reshetovi Kurochkin, Chatterjee et Mikhailov, 2013 and that is an Bird embryo. I wonder whether our friend Christopher Perrins is aware of this.

Fred
 
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