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

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

Steve Brusatte

Follow dinosaurs from their fragile Triassic beginnings to feathered flight and asteroid extinction, guided by vivid fossils, fieldwork, and modern science.

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11 parts, about 22 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • See how fossils and modern tools rebuilt dinosaurs as active, adaptable animals
  • Follow chance, climate, competition, and catastrophe across the dinosaur age
  • Understand why birds survived when every other dinosaur lineage disappeared

Who it is for

  • Readers curious about dinosaurs beyond childhood myths
  • Science readers who enjoy evidence driven history
  • Anyone fascinated by evolution, extinction, and contingency

What the summary covers

  1. Dinosaurs in Feathers1 min
  2. Birth After Catastrophe2 min
  3. Life on Pangea2 min
  4. The Opening That Made an Empire2 min
  5. Many Ways to Feed1 min
  6. Tyrannosaurs Before the Throne2 min
  7. How Tyrannosaurus Rex Worked3 min
  8. A Patchwork World at the End2 min
  9. The Dinosaur Outside the Window3 min
  10. Impact and Survival3 min
  11. A Contingent Aftermath1 min

Recommended by

  • Carl ZimmerScience writer and author of Evolution: Making Sense of Life
    Steve Brusatte is doing some of the most exciting research on dinosaurs today, and he brings that excitement to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.
  • Neil ShubinPaleontologist and author of Your Inner Fish
    The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a work of solid modern science, updating the fallacies and fancies of antiquated paleontology, revealing the quantum leaps in understanding of this modern science. But it is more than that. It is a personal quest full of enthusiasm and joy, getting beneath the dust to reveal the scales and the feathers of dinosaurs.

About the author

  • Steve BrusatteProfessor of palaeontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh
    • Steve Brusatte is a vertebrate palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who studies dinosaurs, mammals and other fossil organisms.
    • He has written more than 150 scientific papers, published six books and described more than 20 new fossil animal species.
    • His fieldwork has taken him to Brazil, Britain, China, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the United States.
    • He served as the palaeontology consultant for Jurassic World: Dominion and as a scientific consultant for the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs.
    • He earned a doctorate in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University in 2013.

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