Rental Partner: Seattle Arts & Lectures presents
James McBride
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Steve Brusatte
A New History of Birds: From Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present
EVENT NOTES
Doors for this event will open at 7:30 PM. Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Buy the Book
The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present
Elliott Bay Book Company
Buy Book
Try to imagine a world without birds. It’s quite a challenge, given that we share the planet with tens of billions of birds spanning an astonishing 14,000 species. Birds find homes nearly everywhere that people do – and many places we do not – and their prowess and plumage have captivated human imagination throughout the ages. But impressive aerial feats and collective choirs of song aside, part of our fascination with birds is rooted in the awe of something so delicate and strange. How did such seemingly fragile creatures made of hollow bones and downy feathers break the mold of terrestrial life and survive millennia?
In his newest book, The Story of Birds: A New History, from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present, esteemed paleontologist Steve Brusatte embarks on a deep dive through the history of avian evolution. The Story of Birds begins by exploring how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds one-by-one—feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, keen senses, and warm-blooded metabolisms. Brusatte investigates how these features contributed to birds emerging as the only surviving dinosaurs of the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago, and how their numbers soared to new heights of diversity in the barren landscape that followed.
Read More
Along this journey through time, meet extraordinary extinct species like the 1.5-ton elephant birds of Madagascar, giant Pelagornithid seabirds with 20-foot wingspans, and flightless 10-foot-tall terror birds with beaks that sliced flesh. Brusatte follows these remarkable species all the way down to the present, urging readers to share the same appreciation for the many impressive birds of today– penguins that literally fly underwater, parrots that can mimic human speech, and hummingbirds that hover mid-air and dive at 50 miles per hour. Presented with keen research and soaring enthusiasm, The Story of Birds unearths the unique origins of birds and the legacy they continue to live to this day.
Steve Brusatte, PhD, is an American paleontologist who teaches at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He is the author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. The paleontology advisor on the Jurassic World film franchise, Brusatte has named more than fifteen new species, including the tyrannosaur “Pinocchio rex” (Qianzhousaurus), the raptor Zhenyuanlong, and several ancient mammals. His research and writing has been featured in Science, the New York Times, Scientific American, and many other publications.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.
Events are offered for informational, entertainment, and educational purposes only. Read Town Hall’s Program Content Policy.
Upcoming Events
3 events found.
Rental Partner: University of Washington Office of Public Lectures presents
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Primary: Alma Thomas, Sisterhood and the Revolutionary Quality of Light
Town Hall Seattle and SetSet present
Psychedelic Salon: Psychedelics & Substance Use
With Dr. Nathan Sackett and April Pride