Review By Veronica
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is an fascinating overview and a great book for anyone who is interested in the magnificent creatures who lived during these prehistoric times.
Goodreads Synopsis:
The dinosaurs. 66 million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome and spectacular creatures vanished. Today their extraordinary true story remains one of our planet’s great mysteries.
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field – discovering 10 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.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist. I remember when I was in middle school, borrowing piles of books on dinosaurs and memorizing as many facts as I could. I made figurines of brontosaurus (my favourite dinosaur) and dreamt of going on digs in faraway lands, where I would discover my very own dinosaur. But as I got older, I realized that I have no skill (and I mean no skill) in math or science, two fields you need to be good at in order to be a paleontologist. But even though I could never be a paleontologist, my love for dinosaurs has never diminished. I was really excited to stumble upon this book in Audible. It’s been a while since I have read any books on dinosaurs, so I was happy to be able to dive back into this prehistoric world.
This is a great book for anyone who is interested in dinosaurs. It doesn’t matter if you are well-versed in paleontology or are completely new to the field. This book is for you. Steve has done a great job at creating a book that is simple enough for those with no scientific background to understand what he has written while also possessing enough detail to keep those with more knowledge in the field interested. I understood what I was listening to. I never once felt overwhelmed or lost with the information that was given to me. This is a non-fiction book, but the author has done a marvellous job of creating this story that shows its readers the rise and fall of the dinosaurs. The information is organized and delivered in a cohesive manner. What is also great about this book is that it is not super dry, aka boring. The author delivers facts about dinosaurs while sharing his own personal stories and experiences. He also shares stories of past and present paleontologists, and some of those stories are pretty entertaining.
Overall, this great book reminded me why I love dinosaurs and the people who study them.
