{"product_id":"taking-flight-how-animals-learned-to-fly-and-transformed-life-on-earth-9781783967827","title":"Taking Flight: How Animals Learned to Fly and Transformed Life on Earth","description":"\u003cb\u003e'This book soars . . . Parikian is a nature writer at the top of his game.' --Steve Brusatte, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e*SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2023* \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis is the miracle of flight as you've never seen it before: the evolutionary story of life on the wing. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A bird flits overhead. It's an everyday occurrence, repeated hundreds, thousands, millions of times daily by creatures across the world. It's something so normal, so entirely taken for granted, that sometimes we forget how extraordinary it is. But take that in for a moment. This animal flies. It. Flies. The miracle of flight has evolved in hugely diverse ways, with countless variations of flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Conjuring lost worlds, ancient species and ever-shifting ecologies, this exhilarating new book is a mesmerising encounter with fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds that co-evolved with rainforest flowers to the wonders of dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eTaking Flight is a mind-expanding feat of the imagination, a close encounter with flight in its myriad forms, urging us to look up and drink in the spectacle of these gravity-defying marvels that continue to shape life on Earth.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLev Parikian\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer, birdwatcher and conductor. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e Into the Tangled Bank\u003c\/i\u003e, longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, \u003ci\u003eLight Rains Sometimes Fall\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear?\u003c\/i\u003e He lives in West London with his family, who are getting used to his increasing enthusiasm for nature. As a birdwatcher, his most prized sightings are a golden oriole in the Alpujarras and a black redstart at Dungeness Power Station.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Elliott \u0026 Thompson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51259990835474,"sku":"9781783967827","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4f324555-a299-4dba-845b-c314aebd0fbf.jpg?v=1746633929","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/taking-flight-how-animals-learned-to-fly-and-transformed-life-on-earth-9781783967827","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}