THE LIBRARY The latest book releases for curious minds

If you know nothing about the evolutionary origins of modern birds, then the following could be considered a bit of a spoiler for David Lindo’s The Extraordinary Life of Birds: they evolved from dinosaurs. Every single species of bird you see today, from tiny finches and hummingbirds to huge ostriches, soaring eagles, chickens and penguins, are descended from a group of dinosaurs called theropods, which included the Tyrannosaurus rex.

It’s a mind-blowing fact to open this book to because after that, you can’t help but compare what you know about dinosaurs to the detailed information on the lives of birds from around the world. Both dinosaurs and birds laid eggs that they had to incubate until their young hatched, for example. Some dinosaurs had feathers, many roamed in great herds like the flocks of birds you see today and some birds even look like they could have been plucked from a prehistoric era. If you’ve ever encountered a cassowary or an emu in a zoo, or have been lucky enough to get close to the likes of a golden eagle, you’ll know what we mean.