Using
a fresh approach that classifies birds according to their bioclimatic
characteristics, Clive Finlayson views the history and distribution of
Palearctic birds from a radical new angle.
History and chance events play a central role in a story that has its origins
before the asteroid impact that finished off the dinosaurs. In this book,
Finlayson shows that the avifauna of the Palearctic long predates the
glaciations of the last two million years, and had established itself gradually
during the turbulent times of the Miocene and Pliocene, the lifting of Tibet and
the drying of the continents having a major influence on these birds.
Those that made it to the start of the glaciations were equipped to deal with
whatever the climate could throw at them. They were the avian survivors, and
they are still here with us today.
Packed with figures and with a rich colour section, Avian Survivors tells the
definitive story of the birds of the Palearctic, across space and time.
Clive Finlayson is Director of the Gibraltar Museum. An evolutionary ecologist,
he is a leading expert on the relationship between climate change and species
distributions, and is the author of several books includingNeanderthals
and Modern Humans (CUP), and Birds of
the Strait of Gibraltar (Poyser).
