For instance, in discussing sauropods-the long-necked leviathans that thundered across the landscape-he goes into a deep explanation of the physical attributes these creatures developed over millions of years that allowed them to reach such titanic proportions. Having only a rudimentary understanding of the subject, it was fascinating to learn all the secrets to dinosaur biology paleontologists have unlocked and how. It was on the subject of the evolutionary history of dinosaurs that I feel I learned the most from this book, which had me excited at each reading session.

Brusatte artfully crafts a timeline for us to follow from chapter to chapter, starting with the Permian Extinction events prior to the Triassic period, that helps to foster a greater understanding of the ever-changing world that dinosaurs lived in, the creatures they competed with, and the ways the dinosaurs themselves evolved. I knew certain species belonged in certain periods, but never had a firm appreciation of what that meant. While I can only really speak for myself, I imagine a lot of people are only vaguely aware of certain periods of prehistory - I remembered Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, as well as their order - with dinosaurs existing sort of nebulously in these distant eras of the past.

I picked up this book to feed that dormant interest a little, but little did I know just how much it would reignite that passion.īrusatte’s prose is exceptionally readable, presenting a lot of information in a conversational style that is engaging and easy to retain. While I never stopped liking them as an idea, that interest simmered down into something much more passive in my adult life. They captured the imagination in ways few living animals could. Growing up when the Jurassic Park movies were coming out, I loved dinosaurs when I was a kid as many others did. In doing so the book also presents an equally valuable glimpse into the field and lab work of paleontologists throughout history and in the modern era.

Though surely only a snapshot into an extensive scientific field, what it offers the everyday reader is a vivid look into what scientists currently know about dinosaurs and how they have learned what they know. It starts from their emergence on a dramatically changed Earth in the Triassic period, to their growth into dominance in the Jurassic period, and finally their peak in the Cretaceous period before their catastrophic end. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte is a nonfiction paleontology book published in 2018 that tells the story of the dinosaurs.

Dinosaur book steve brusatte