Mesozoic birds
Subtitle: above the heads of dinosaurs
By: edited by Luis M. Chiappe and Lawrence W. Witmer
Contributors: Chiappe, Luis M; Witmer, Lawrence M
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 520
Subjects: Birds, Fossil; Paleontology -- Mesozoic; Birds -- Evolution
Description: "Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs is the most authoritative and up-to-date source on early avian evolution currently available. This unique resource provides comprehensive examination of the known fossil record and is also an unparalleled guide to the fast-paced developments in current research.".

"The origin of birds and their relationship to dinosaurs continue to be hotly debated among paleontologists, ornithologists, and evolutionary biologists. This cutting-edge reference will become an essential resource for those interested in this debate and in many other fascinating topics relating to the evolution of the earliest known birds."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index
Table of contents: title: The debate on avian ancestry: phylogeny, function, and fossils / Lawrence M. Witmer; title: Cladistic approaches to the relationships of birds to other theropod dinosaurs / James M. Clark, Mark A. Norell and Peter J. Makovicky; title: The enigmatic birdlike dinosaur Avimimus portentosus: comments and a pictorial atlas / Patricia Vickers-Rich, Luis M. Chiappe and Sergei Kurzanov; title: The Cretaceous short-armed Alvarezsauridae: Mononykus and its kin / Luis M. Chiappe, Mark A. Norell and James M. Clark; title: Alvarezsaurid relationships reconsidered / Fernando E. Novas and Diego Pol; title: Archaeopterygidae (Upper Jurassic of Germany) / Andrzej Elzanowski; title: The discovery and study of Mesozoic birds in China / Zhou Zhonghe and Hou Lianhai; title: Sinornis santensis (Aves: Enantiornithes) from the early Cretaceous of northeastern China / Paul C. Sereno, Rao Chenggang and Li Jianjun; title: The birds from the Lower Cretaceous of Las Hoyas (Province of Cuenca, Spain) / José L. Sanz ... [et al.]; title: Nogueromis gonzalezi (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from the early Cretaceous of Spain / Luis M. Chiappe and Antonio Lacasa-Ruiz; title: Skeletal morphology and systematics of the Cretaceous Euenantiornithes (Ornithothoraces: Enantiornithes) / Luis M. Chiappe and Cyril A. Walker; title: Vorona berivotrensis, a primitive bird from the late Cretaceous of Madagascar / Catherine A. Forster ... [et al.]; title: Osteology of the flightless Patagopteryx deferrariisi from the late Cretaceous of Patagonia (Argentina) / Luis M. Chiappe; title: Enaliornis, an early Cretaceous hesperornithiform bird from England, with comments on other Hesperornithiformes / Peter M. Galton and Larry D. Martin; title: The Mesozoic radiation of Neornithes / Sylvia Hope; title: A review of avian Mesozoic fossil feathers / Alexander W.A. Kellner; title: The track record of Mesozoic birds and pterosaurs: an ichnological and paleoecological perspective / Martin G. Lockley and Emma C. Rainforth; title: Bone microstructure of early birds / Anusuya Chinsamy; title: Locomotor evolution on the line to modern birds / Stephen M. Gatesy; title: Basal bird phylogeny: problems and solutions / Luis M. Chiappe