Taking Flight

The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing

A celebration of the miraculous phenomenon of flight through fourteen species and across millions of years – from pterosaurs to dragonflies, butterflies to albatross.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2023*



‘This book soars… Parikian is a nature writer at the top of his game.’ Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

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This is the miracle of flight as you’ve never seen it before: the evolutionary story of life on the wing.

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.

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.

Taking 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.

‘[Lev Parikian] brings a sense of infectious enthusiasm to his account of the evolution of flight in the natural world, from mayflies and bees to bats and hummingbirds by way of pterosaurs and archaeopteryx, combining a wealth of information with a sense of wonder.’ The Observer

‘This accessible account of the animal kingdom’s development of flight exhibits a layman’s enthusiasm for an everyday wonder.’ Rebecca Foster, TLS

Pages: 256

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