The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

A New History of a Lost World

By: Steve Brusatte

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

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.

Good coverage of the topic

The author did a good job covering the biology, research, people and events of the time and Fall of the dinosaurs. The book renewed my interest in vertebrate paleontology. I wish he was less teleological in his discussion of change and used less anthropomorphic language at times. I find that those ways of writing increase misconceptions about how natural selection works.

Deep dive into the history of our planet and the creatures that have lived on it

An incredibly thorough analysis of the history of our planet and the many creatures that have lived on it. The amount of detail can be overwhelming and maybe too much for the casual reader but the overall information I found fascinating and couldn’t stop reading. I would like to see an abbreviated version for those that don’t need as much detail.

Listen to this one!

Dinosaur history translated into a very understandable, entertaining, and highly interesting book! I loved it!

Who Doesn't Like Dinosaurs?

Informative, and highly entertaining. The author's enthusiasm for his subject, perfectly captured by the narrator, is contagious.

Fun introduction to the world of dinosaurs and paleontology

Brusatte has written an introduction to the world of dinosaurs and paleontology that bubbles over with excitement and enthusiasm. The book is as much a history of the study of dinosaurs as it is a history of the dinosaurs themselves. Brusatte takes the time to explain (very simply) great scientific breakthroughs, controversies and dead ends. How did the era of dinosaurs end? How and did they evolve into birds? What were the biological conditions that allowed such behemoths to grow and thrive? All of these questions and more are answered through stories involving a motley cast of committed, and often eccentric, scientists. This book is perfect for middle and high school students who are interested in science—and could easily inspire a whole new generation of paleontologists to pick up where Brusatte leaves off.