Unless you're a specialist on these birds, much of what Kaiser says will be novel. Among the best bits of the book are those on the ecomorphology, behaviour and breeding biology of the birds that frequent the Pacific northwest, among them sea eagles and auks. As Kaiser puts it, neornithines have come a long way from their ancestors.Įxtensive hands-on experience of north Pacific seabirds, waders and others provides Kaiser with a practical, grounded perspective. This is the 'inner bird' body plan, and it has enabled some birds to make a living from freezing cold oceans, to live for months on end on the wing, and to become one of the most successful vertebrate clades in a multitude of terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Neornithines are, generally speaking, small, fragile, thin-limbed animals, protected and covered by an extensive 'environmental suit' formed from their integument, and with only a few of their extremities truly exposed to the elements. The volume takes its title from one of Kaiser's most profound intellectual proposals: the notion that neornithine birds are "puppeteers that hide behind a screen of feathers" creatures that have evolved a highly novel body plan for vertebrates. A glossary and numerous graphs, tables and diagrams are included, and the text is fully referenced. Kaiser uses his knowledge of modern bird aerodynamics and flight behaviour to look anew at Archaeopteryx, confuciusornithids, enantiornithines ('ball-shouldered birds' of his usage) and other fossil birds, and the final chapter in this section - that on the structure and function of marine birds - is one of the best in the book. The anatomy and function of feathers, their evolutionary origins, and their distribution in dinosaurs form the subject of the third and final section. The amazing anatomy and controversial phylogenetic position of this South American bird evidently fascinate the author and he returns to it many times over, also featuring it and its skeleton on the cover. He also uses this as an opportunity to examine the wonderful but always annoying Hoatzin Opithocomus hoazin. Kaiser spends a lot of time on convergent evolution and focuses on ambiguity and disagreement more than their opposites. Ī second section begins with a review of the history of avian classification and is then devoted to a discussion of avian phylogeny. Kaiser's discussions of such areas as sesamoid distribution and function, neck mobility, the form of the lumbar-synsacrum junction, chewing behaviour and bill morphology in cuckoos and turacos, the possible role of the glycogen body, and the massive variation seen in furcular anatomy among neornithines are extremely welcome. There is a huge amount of information here that has not been distilled before. The book begins with an introduction to avian anatomy (covering both bone structure in general, and the many skeletal and soft-tissue peculiarities of the different bird groups) and then compares and contrasts modern (neornithine) birds with their dinosaurian ancestors.
The Inner Bird is also eminently readable: it is not a text-book.
The author also challenges widely-held ideas where appropriate and brings attention to the fact that erroneous, highly dated views on avian anatomy and function are still being promoted. Kaiser's volume not only serves as both a wide-ranging introduction and review, but also includes new data and several interesting new hypotheses. I will state here at the outset that I cannot recommend it highly enough.Ĭontaining a wealth of information that ranges from the Mesozoic ancestry of birds to neornithine phylogeny, flight dynamics, functional morphology and ecology, it should be sought out and consulted avidly by anyone seriously interested in avian anatomy and evolution. Gary Kaiser's The Inner Bird: Anatomy and Evolution stands out as one of a kind - it is not brand-new (having been published in 2007), but still has yet to be widely recognised as the valuable piece of scholarship that it is. Good, non-technical books on anatomy are rare good, non-technical books on avian anatomy are just about non-existent.
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