Steve Brusatte at the Harvard Science Center

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Steve Brusatte—Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, paleontology consultant for the Jurassic World film franchise and BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs, and author of the New York Times bestselling pop science book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs—for an inspiring presentation of his new book, The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present. This event will take place at the Harvard Science Center, Hall D.

There are two ticket options available for this event.

Free General Admission Ticket: Includes admission for one.
Book-Included Ticket: Includes admission for one and one hardcover copy of The Story of Birds pre-signed by the author.

Note: Books bundled with tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand. Ticket holders who purchased a book-included ticket and are unable to attend the event will be able to pick up their book at Harvard Book Store up to 30 days following the event. This offer expires after 30 days. Please note we cannot guarantee signed copies will be available to ticket holders who do not attend the event.

From the renowned paleontologist and bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a sweeping evolutionary history of birds, from their dinosaur origins to the 10,000+ extraordinary species alive today.

Tens of billions of birds share the planet with us, an astonishingly diverse array of species that are present nearly everywhere humans call home—and many places we do not. With their flamboyant plumage, joyous dawn serenades, extraordinary aerial feats, they have captivated human imagination for millennia. Undeniably delicate creatures with hollow bones and thin skin protected by downy feathers, how did such a seemingly fragile species break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, how have they survived millennia, and how does their legacy shape our world?

Hailed as “one of the stars of modern paleontology” (National Geographic), Steve Brusatte now tells the extraordinary story of the dinosaurs' living legacy: birds. He begins by exploring how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds one-by-one—feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, keen senses, and warm-blooded metabolisms. He investigates why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago and chronicles how these survivors rapidly proliferated to produce the diversity of avian species we know today.

Along the way, we meet a variety of remarkable – now extinct – species:

• 10-foot-tall terror birds with beaks that sliced flesh
• Elephant birds that lived on Madagascar and laid eggs the size of footballs
• Pelagornithid seabirds with 20-foot wingspans
• A ferocious Jamaican ibis that used its wings as clubs to attack rivals

Yet, Brusatte also urges us to appreciate the extraordinariness of birds alive today – penguins that literally fly underwater, parrots that can mimic human speech and crows that can make tools and are smarter than most mammals.

A fascinating scientific history that unearths the origins of birds, The Story of Birds establishes the living legacy of this remarkable species.

Steve Brusatte is Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is a specialist on the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of dinosaurs, birds, and mammals, and has named dozens of new extinct species and done fieldwork around the world. He is a keen popularizer of science, and author of the New York Times bestselling pop science book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and the newly published The Story of Birds (April 2026). He is the paleontology consultant for the Jurassic World film franchise and BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs.

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

The Harvard Science Book Talks series is a collaboration between the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store. The series features talks by the authors of recently published books on a variety of science-related topics and is open to both the Harvard community and to the general public.

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