Overview

A sweeping and revelatory new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY. -- Scientific American 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.

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9781538500514

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Reviews

Brusatte brings new discoveries, a taste for a good yarn, and his infectious enthusiasm to the epic tales of paleontology. It is hard to read Brusatte and not love lost worlds. -- Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish A nimble introduction to the world of dinosaurs...A must-have for fans of ancient reptiles and their lost world. -- Kirkus Reviews With both dino-geek glee and science-writer exactitude, Brusatte travels the world as he tells the story of the rise of dinosaurs...This is popular-science writing at its best. -- Booklist (starred review) While dinosaur books may not be a hard sell, one by a top paleontologist and lively writer should not be missed. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal (starred review) Brusatte does a superb job of relating current research, both his own and that of many colleagues around the globe...Making it clear that this is a truly exciting period, in which new fossils are being uncovered at a dizzying pace. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Patrick Lawlor's narration injects Brusatte's enthusiasm into the informative writing. Brusatte's timeline updates the dinosaur saga...Listeners who love dinosaurs will thrill to the latest developments in their history. -- AudioFile If you ever loved a dinosaur, buy this book...Brusatte does for dinosaurs what E. O. Wilson did for ants and Carl Sagan for stars. -- Washington Times A thrilling study...The best book on the subject since [the 1980s]...Brusatte writes with the authority of a man who ranks as one of the leading experts in his field. -- Sunday Times (London) A masterpiece of science writing. -- Washington Post The ultimate dinosaur biography. -- Scientific American This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous. -- Nature

"A masterpiece of science writing. -- ""Washington Post"" A nimble introduction to the world of dinosaurs...A must-have for fans of ancient reptiles and their lost world. -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" A thrilling study...The best book on the subject since [the 1980s]...Brusatte writes with the authority of a man who ranks as one of the leading experts in his field. -- ""Sunday Times (London)"" Brusatte brings new discoveries, a taste for a good yarn, and his infectious enthusiasm to the epic tales of paleontology. It is hard to read Brusatte and not love lost worlds. -- ""Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish"" Brusatte does a superb job of relating current research, both his own and that of many colleagues around the globe...Making it clear that this is a truly exciting period, in which new fossils are being uncovered at a dizzying pace. -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" If you ever loved a dinosaur, buy this book...Brusatte does for dinosaurs what E. O. Wilson did for ants and Carl Sagan for stars. -- ""Washington Times"" Patrick Lawlor's narration injects Brusatte's enthusiasm into the informative writing. Brusatte's timeline updates the dinosaur saga...Listeners who love dinosaurs will thrill to the latest developments in their history. -- ""AudioFile"" The ultimate dinosaur biography. -- ""Scientific American"" This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous. -- ""Nature"" While dinosaur books may not be a hard sell, one by a top paleontologist and lively writer should not be missed. Highly recommended. -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" With both dino-geek glee and science-writer exactitude, Brusatte travels the world as he tells the story of the rise of dinosaurs...This is popular-science writing at its best. -- ""Booklist (starred review)"""

Author Information

Steve Brusatte is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist on the evolution of dinosaurs. He helped identify Pinocchio rex as a tyrannosaur. Through his fieldwork he has discovered dinosaur fossils in many places around the world. Dr. Brusatte wrote Day of the Dinosaurs and Walking with Dinosaurs Encyclopedia. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Patrick Lawlor, an award-winning narrator, is also an accomplished stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. He has worked extensively off Broadway and has been an actor and stuntman in both film and television. He has been an Audie Award finalist multiple times and has garnered several AudioFile Earphones Awards, a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and many starred audio reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.

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