We present an overview of the global spatiotemporal distribution of avian biodiversity,
changes in our knowledge of that biodiversity, and the extent to which it is imperilled. Birds�…

Biodiversity today has the unusual property that 85% of plant and animal species live on
land rather than in the sea, and half of these live in tropical rainforests. An explosive boost to�…

Vertebrate palaeontology is a lively field, with new discoveries reported every week... and
not only dinosaurs! This new edition reflects the international scope of vertebrate�…

Avian diversification has been influenced by global climate change, plate tectonic
movements, and mass extinction events. However, the impact of these factors on the�…

The Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction, 66 Ma, included the demise of non-avian
dinosaurs. Intense debate has focused on the relative roles of Deccan volcanism and the�…

We report a time-calibrated stratigraphic section in Colorado that contains unusually
complete fossils of mammals, reptiles, and plants and elucidates the drivers and tempo of�…

Our understanding of the earliest stages of crown bird evolution is hindered by an
exceedingly sparse avian fossil record from the Mesozoic era. The most ancient�…

Relative brain sizes in birds can rival those of primates, but large-scale patterns and drivers
of avian brain evolution remain elusive. Here, we explore the evolution of the fundamental�…

Birds today are the most diverse clade of terrestrial vertebrates, and understanding why
extant birds (Aves) alone among dinosaurs survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass�…

The ability to manipulate objects with limbs has evolved repeatedly among land tetrapods.
Several selective forces have been proposed to explain the emergence of forelimb�…