Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe Story of Birds (featuring Dr. Steve Brusatte)
10 snips
Apr 28, 2026 
Dr. Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh and author of The Story of Birds, joins to explore bird origins. He explains how birds are dinosaurs, how feathers and wings evolved before flight, and how scientists infer ancient feather colors. He also discusses why some birds survived the asteroid while pterosaurs did not.
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Paleontologist Adopts Vegetarian Haggis
- Steve Brusatte recounts moving from Illinois to Scotland and discovering haggis, preferring the vegetarian version made from lentils and spices.
- He jokes vegetarian haggis replicates organ-meat flavor through spice 'alchemy'.
Birds Are Living Dinosaurs
- Birds are a lineage of dinosaurs that evolved from small, raptor-like theropods and retain diagnostic dinosaur features like hip joints and vertebral connections.
- Steve Brusatte compares birds to bats within mammals: a specialized branch that got small, evolved wings, and retained core ancestral traits.
Birds Descended From Raptor Dinosaurs
- The closest dinosaur relatives of modern birds are small raptor groups such as dromaeosaurs and troodontids rather than giant sauropods or T. rex.
- Steve emphasizes that many dinosaurs were small and raptor-like, and birds arose from those lineages.
