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.

what a great book!

loved this book. the author's writing style is informal, fun, and energetic and the narrator translates it like a pro.

the book is a nice blend of personal annecdote and intro to paleontology. should satisfy those who love layman's history and science plus the adventure book crowd.

The best dinosaur book I've read.

Steve knows his stuff, he goes into deep detail about who these creatures were and how they lived their lives. I especially enjoyed the section concerning the extinction of the dinosaurs. He goes into great detail speculating on the meteor impact and the immediate effects on the dinosaurs. He then writes about the days, decades centuries and millennia after the extinction.

Excellent

Very interesting and informative. I know I will listen to this book several times. Thanks.

wowzers

Bruatte tells am amazing story. it all flowed so we. I learned so much, and enjoyed the entire read.

steve does an excellent job at reading through the novel with a gentle flow and excitement

Great book

I really enjoyed listening to this book . It was full of descriptions of the earth and animals that once lived here. It was also full of stories of a young person interested in dinosaurs and that interest turned into a career . Very well done .