feathers the evolution of a natural miracle

Chapters look at the evolution and origin of feathers, their use in flight, thermoregulation and display, and their importance to humans.Ī discussion of feathered non-avialan theropod dinosaurs, and a review of feather origin theories make up early sections in the book. And Feathers is not the provincial view of someone only interested in ecology or conservation biology on the contrary, this is a remarkably well-rounded review of the subject. Hanson might not be a feather specialist, or even a dedicated ornithologist, but his many encounters with feathers, and with their structure, role, significance and uniqueness, obviously created the urge that culminated in this book. He’s published technical research on such topics as the ecology of tropical trees, forest fragmentation and its impact on bird nest predation, the impact that warfare can have on biodiversity hotspots, and the behaviour of Neotropical monkeys and birds. Hanson, a Washington State-based conservation biologist, previously wrote The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda. Thor Hanson’s 2011 Feathers is thus a rather significant book, and very nice it is too. Yet for all their marvellous complexity, for all the interest that people have displayed in their evolutionary origins and diversity, for all their role in bird behaviour and ecology, and for all their economic and cultural significance to humans, it doesn’t seem that any one book has ever been devoted to feathers and feathers alone. Feathers are just crazy, almost certainly the most complex structures to ever grow out of any animal’s external surface.

The complex structure, development and growth of feathers can, to paraphrase one expert on the subject, be seriously damaging to your mental health.

Feathers the evolution of a natural miracle