The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
The Untold Story of a Lost World
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4.6 • 33 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The Times Science Book of the Year.
A Sunday Times Bestseller.
66 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. Today, Dr. Steve Brusatte, one of the leading scientists of a new generation of dinosaur hunters, armed with cutting edge technology, is piecing together the complete story of how the dinosaurs ruled the earth for 150 million years.
The world of the dinosaurs has fascinated on book and screen for decades – from early science fiction classics like The Lost World, to Godzilla terrorizing the streets of Tokyo, and the monsters of Jurassic Park. But what if we got it wrong? In The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, top dinosaur expert Brusatte, tells the real story of how dinosaurs rose to dominate the planet. Using the fossil clues that have been gathered using state of the art technology, Brusatte follows these magnificent creatures from their beginnings in the Early Triassic period, through the Jurassic period to their final days in the Cretaceous and the legacy that they left behind.
Along the way, Brusatte introduces us to modern day dinosaur hunters and gives an insight into what it’s like to be a paleontologist. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is full of thrilling accounts of some of his personal discoveries, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs, monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex, and feathered raptor dinosaurs preserved in lava from China.
At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 200,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures who ruled the earth before us.
'Thrilling . . . the best book on the subject written for the general reader since the 1980s.' - The Sunday Times
Customer Reviews
Entertaining and informative
Before reading this book I had no interest in dinosaurs, I do now. This is an entertaining and informative look at the Age of Dinosaurs. The author has an engaging, easy to read style, that guides you through the 150 million years of dinosaur evolution.
This book brings to life the world of the dinosaurs and the creatures themselves throughout the three geological periods they lived in. More importantly, for me, the author explains how we know all this via describing historical findings or the latest fieldwork taking place.
A novice like me comes away vastly more knowledgable about the subject and if one feels the urge to move on to more dinosaur discoveries of their own, there’s a heap of references at the back of the book.
Could not recommend more highly.
Disappointed
Childishly written, with analogies that don’t work and clichéd descriptions of his fellow workers. Woefully short of illustrations and, actually, a little bit short on information. I don’t think the author will be proud of his writing 20 years from now. He needed a good editor.