n this episode, we discuss the evolution of birds, how our understanding of ancient history is still evolving, and which was the baddest ancient bird of them all.
Dr. Dan Field is a vertebrate palaeontologist interested in the evolutionary history of birds and other amniotes. Our group's research explores the vertebrate fossil record and organismal biology in a phylogenetic framework to explore how and when extant vertebrate diversity has arisen. His work at the Field Lab aims to decipher the origins of modern avian biodiversity using fossil, anatomical, and molecular data, although we have deep interests in evolutionary questions across the vertebrate tree of life. In 2020 we revealed the discovery of the "Wonderchicken", Asteriornis, the oldest-known modern bird fossil and an early relative of the group that gave rise to living chickens and ducks. Major themes of our research include clarifying how birds survived and diversified following the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, studying the evolutionary histories of major bird groups, and understanding the evolutionary origins of distinctive biological features such as the modern bird skull.
You can learn more about their research at: https://www.fieldpalaeo.com/
on Instagram & Twitter: @FieldPalaeo