Dinosaurs of the Air by Gregory Paul, Johns Hopkins University Press, £34.50, ISBN 0801867630 Review by Jeff Hecht
DINOSAURS no longer thunder across the land, but they do flutter among the trees and paddle around the pond. Evolutionarily speaking, modern birds from hawks to hummingbirds are avian dinosaurs, descended from swift two-legged predators like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park.
Gregory Paul’s title, Dinosaurs of the Air symbolises the compelling links that he documents. A sparrow perched on a twig is far from our usual view of the elephantine Apatosaurus (better known as Brontosaurus) or the terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex. Yet under the skin they share the same…
