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Taking Wing

Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight
Jun 11, 2011
"No surprise, my must-read book is on flight. Sort of. The book is about the mystery of flight and that incredible creature, Archaeopteryx. Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight by Pat Shipman encompasses all that I enjoy – adventure, mystery, scientific fact and art, this time in the form of writing and drawings. There is a human skeleton side by side with one of a bird, parts labelled and explained. For those who still do not grasp how Bernoulli's principle applies to flight, here is a fresh start. An anthropologist, Shipman delves into the emotional discovery of that precious fossil and the lives that are changed in the search for missing links from bird to dinosaur. The discovery of archaeopteryx is not the end of the tale. That has not been written yet as there is much to be found on our planet and perhaps beyond Earth that will give us valuable clues to that most treasured gift that human beings have admired and still try to replicate." Roberta Bondar