Birds as Living Dinosaurs: Feathers, Color Vision, and Sexual Selection with Rick Prum

Overview

In this episode, host Janna Levin chats with Yale evolutionary ornithologist Rick Prum about birds as living dinosaurs, the origin of feathers, and the rich dynamics of bird coloration and signaling. The conversation spans tree thinking in evolutionary biology, the many functions of feathers beyond flight, and how birds perceive color—including ultraviolet vision—that shapes social life and mate choice.

They also explore the enduring tension around aesthetic selection, Darwin's ideas on sexual selection, and Prum's ongoing research into transcriptomics, adolescent plumage, and the complexity of color production in feathers. The episode blends field biology, paleontology, sensory ecology, and theory to illuminate how natural and sexual selection interact in shaping the avian world.

Birds, Dinosaurs, and Tree Thinking

The episode opens by positioning birds as living dinosaurs, a perspective that emphasizes the hierarchical tree of life and historical lineages. Prum explains that feathers did not evolve solely for flight, but served multiple early functions such as thermoregulation, camouflage, and social display long before flight emerged as a primary use. This sets the stage for understanding how complex traits can evolve through a sequence of intermediate states rather than as immediate adaptations for a single purpose. A key point is that the presence of a single lineage (birds) within the broader dinosaur clade does not erase the deep evolutionary connections that define life’s history. “Feathers were first tubular, then a tuft, then a vein, a flat surface, but not integrated, and then a vein that zippered together.” - Rick Prum