Hardcover, 404 pages
English language
Published Oct. 18, 2018
The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before.
In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field—naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork—masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages.
Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass …
The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before.
In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field—naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork—masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages.
Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth’s history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a “sixth extinction.”
Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research—which he calls “a new golden age of discovery”—and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China.
An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs’ epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come.
Very dense for an audio book, I might have to re-read it as a book. Still quite interesting where I listened long enough to get all the required context. Definitely worth trying again.
A fascinating look at the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, with personal interludes by the author about his own personal interest and research in the field with fellow fossil collaborators, who also turn out to be quite fascinating characters in their own right. Dinosaur nerds will be familiar with most of the dinosaur names, while others will get an appreciation for what it took for palaeontologists to dig out what happened to these magnificent prehistoric animals.
A chapter by chapter review follows:
The Dawn of the Dinosaurs: this chapter starts at the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic. Traces of the animals that would become the dinosaurs begin to show up in the fossil record with identifying features, especially limbs that are placed beneath the body, instead of sprawling out to the side.
Dinosaurs Rise Up: the chapter covers the initial rise of dinosaurs in …
A fascinating look at the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, with personal interludes by the author about his own personal interest and research in the field with fellow fossil collaborators, who also turn out to be quite fascinating characters in their own right. Dinosaur nerds will be familiar with most of the dinosaur names, while others will get an appreciation for what it took for palaeontologists to dig out what happened to these magnificent prehistoric animals.
A chapter by chapter review follows:
The Dawn of the Dinosaurs: this chapter starts at the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic. Traces of the animals that would become the dinosaurs begin to show up in the fossil record with identifying features, especially limbs that are placed beneath the body, instead of sprawling out to the side.
Dinosaurs Rise Up: the chapter covers the initial rise of dinosaurs in the Triassic. At this time, all the land masses were together (Pangaea) leading to some climate extremes. Dinosaurs were found in the temperate regions, but not many, and were overshadowed by their crocodilian cousins and other large amphibians. At this time, they were not dominating the landscape, like in the standard narrative about the rise of dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs Become Dominant: this chapter covers the end of the Triassic, which was marked by large volcanic eruptions as Pangaea broke apart. Many animals would become extinct, but dinosaurs thrived, although the reason why dinosaurs did and not other kinds of animals didn't well known. Among the dinosaurs, a group known as the sauropods would eventually become the biggest creatures to walk the earth.
Dinosaurs and Drifting Continents: covering the Jurassic period, this chapter shows dinosaurs were now dominant, with the largest dinosaurs being the sauropods. Many sauropod species existed at the same time, but they specialized in their diets to coexist (some ate the low vegetation, others higher up). The Jurassic would become the Cretaceous, with the continents were still breaking up. The sauropods would be replaced by other plant eaters and the earlier predators replaced by other bigger ones like Allosaurus.
The Tyrant Dinosaurs: this chapter focuses on one group of dinosaurs: the Tyrannosaurs. T. rex would be the first tyrannosaur to be found and the largest. The puzzle was how it became so big and how it came to dominate during the Cretaceous, while other big predator dinosaurs around. Recent fossils show the Tyrannosaur family started in the Jurassic, but were small then. Only later would it grow big and dominant after other big dinosaurs disappeared during an extinction event.
The King of the Dinosaurs: the chapter focuses mainly on the famous T. rex. It covers those characteristics that have made it a well known prehistoric predator: from its teeth, its bone crushing skull strength, it's running abilities, its probable intelligence and behaviour, to how fast it grew and how long it lived. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the tyrant.
Dinosaurs at the Top of Their Game: this chapter looks at dinosaurs in general during the Cretaceous, which were varied and diverse. Continents were now split apart, leading to diverse ecologies and different kinds of species on different continent: T. rex and Triceratops in North America, for example, others in South America, Asia and Africa. In Europe (then a bunch of islands), evolution would lead to weird small dinosaurs due to the 'island effect'.
Dinosaurs Take Flight: this chapter would look at the only branch of the dinosaurs that still exist: the birds. It covers the evidence that birds are dinosaurs from their anatomy. The discovery of feathered dinosaurs in China would further seal the relationship. But why did feathers evolve? For now, the idea is that feathers were initially used for display, and only later were they reused for flight.
Dinosaurs Die Out: this chapter covers the end of the reign of dinosaurs due to the impact of a large object from space. The evidence from the work of the author and others would dispute the assertion that dinosaurs were already in decline before the impact. A brief section on the rise of the mammals would close out the story.
This book isn't about dinosaurs. Well, it is about dinosaurs, but that's not what this book is really about. This is a book about science. Not the simplified list of steps for the scientific method that you learn in middle school, but real-world professional science. Science that involves not just academic learning, but luck and personal connections and dedication. Science where knowledge isn't static, where researchers build upon and challenge the work of scientists who came before them. And there's also a bunch of stuff about dinosaurs and evolution and massive extinctions.
The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars (it would get 4.5 if Goodreads would ever adopt the vastly superior half-star system) is that it sometimes tries to hard to be literary. For a book with so much scientific information, it's an easy, enjoyable read (or listen, as I read this on audiobook). Brusatte demonstrates great skill …
This book isn't about dinosaurs. Well, it is about dinosaurs, but that's not what this book is really about. This is a book about science. Not the simplified list of steps for the scientific method that you learn in middle school, but real-world professional science. Science that involves not just academic learning, but luck and personal connections and dedication. Science where knowledge isn't static, where researchers build upon and challenge the work of scientists who came before them. And there's also a bunch of stuff about dinosaurs and evolution and massive extinctions.
The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars (it would get 4.5 if Goodreads would ever adopt the vastly superior half-star system) is that it sometimes tries to hard to be literary. For a book with so much scientific information, it's an easy, enjoyable read (or listen, as I read this on audiobook). Brusatte demonstrates great skill in distilling millions of years of geological development and biological evolution into something that someone like me can understand. Where his prose falters is when he goes too hard for figurative language. An example of this is when he's describing some sort of proto-crocodile thing and he describes it as being like a greyhound. That's good. I know what a greyhound is and that it doesn't look much like a modern crocodile, so I am able to get an image of the creature in my mind. But instead of moving on, the author doubles down, describing proto-croc as looking like an emaciated supermodel. There are times when less figurative language can be a good thing.
