Sure, biologists still have academically foundational arguments over the proper positions of various protoplasmic goos at the tree of life’s trunk, but what shakes the trunk doesn’t always sway the branches. Not like dinosaurs — the charismatic megafauna of our collective childhood imaginations, now with feathers.

The dinosaur history books have literally been redrawn, and among the artists is Matthew Martyniuk, author and illustrator of the Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and Other Winged Dinosaurs. Inside, using the field guide format that’s introduced so many people to nature, he introduces readers to dozens of dinosaurs that lived in the strange evolutionary junction between dino and bird.

“I’ve always been interested in bird evolution. It seemed there were so many books illustrating prehistoric animals, but none focusing on bird origins,” said Martyniuk. “A lot of their characteristics go pretty deep into what were traditionally considered dinosaurs, and are really making us rethink how they would have looked in real life.”

On the following pages, Martyniuk takes Wired on a tour of his dino-bird world.