Some birds survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction thanks to a variety of features, including their ability to grow quickly and fly. (Image credit: Frieso Hoevelkamp/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images) Birds have spread their wings the world over, but they first took flight at least 150 million years ago, during the dinosaur age. In his new book " The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present " (Mariner Books, 2026), Steve Brusatte, who is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, takes readers on a wild ride from the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx from Jurassic Germany, through the eras, explaining how two-legged theropod dinosaurs evolved into the more than 10,000 species of birds alive today.…