The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

A sweeping first-and-only narrative history of dinosaurs, telling their epic, star-studded (T-rex, triceratops, etc.) story, from origins, to extinction, to their living legacy, written by a rising star in paleontology

Dinosaurs fascinate. The latest installment of Jurassic Park was seen by tens of millions. Their fossils remain enduringly popular at natural history museums, and often sell for millions of dollars at auction. And it seems as though every week, there's some sort of exciting discovery in the news. Yet despite their grip on the public imagination, most of us know very little about the fascinating history of these animals. Enter Stephen Brusatte, a 32-year-old American wunderkind who has become one of the foremost stars of the paleontology world. Brusatte has already made a name for himself by discovering 10 new species of dinosaurs, and has led groundbreaking studies on how dinosaurs rose to dominance and went extinct. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is an ambitious narrative history that follows the dinosaurs from the Early Triassic period at the start of their evolution, roughly 250 million years ago, through the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, concluding at the end of the Cretaceous Period (66 million years ago), when a giant meteor struck the earth and all non-bird species went extinct. We see them evolve from small, humble shadow dwellers, themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic, into the long-necked, armored, carnivores we all know and love. We witness their heyday during the Cretaceous Period, when thousands of species thrived across the globe, highlighted by apex predators like the Tyrannosaurus rex. The Cretaceous also saw the emergence of winged and feathered dinosaurs, prehistoric ancestors of more than 10,000 modern bird species. Along the way, Brusatte recounts compelling stories from his own journey studying the dinosaurs over the last decade and a half, one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research. When Brusatte began studying paleontology in 2002, we still knew very little about how dinosaurs originated, became dominant, and went extinct. Now, thanks in part to his discoveries, we have a much fuller picture. Brusatte offers first-hand accounts of some of the remarkable new dinosaurs he has discovered, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex, and raptor dinosaurs from China. A satisfying read that unearths the dinosaurs' epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs should be the definitive narrative history of the subject for years to come