[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

This is a podcast, 20 minutes of the NPR Science Friday program. It’s very worthwhile listening to; the actual book may be even better. I particularly appreciated the discussion on why the ancestors of birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the asteroid impact 66 million years, despite the evidence that 75% of all species was extinguished.

Science Friday: The Long History of Birds from Velociraptors to Pigeons

Program Blurb

Comparing a backyard sparrow to a fearsome velociraptor seems odd, but modern birds are indeed living dinosaurs. Scientists are finding more and more connections between the past physiology of dinosaurs and the present physiology of birds. 

Joining Ira Flatow to talk about some forgotten species from the past tens of millions of years—think gorilla-sized penguins—is Steve Brusatte, vertebrate paleontologist and author of “The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present.”