GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS WINNER A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Smithsonian The Times (London)
Science Friday Popular Mechanics Science News Library Journal Booklist Chicago Public
Library Sixty-six million years ago the Earth's most fearsome creatures vanished. Today the
dinosaurs remain one of our planet's great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
reveals their thrilling 200-million-year-long story as never before. American paleontologist
Steve Brusatte masterfully brings to life the lost world of the dinosaurs illuminating their
enigmatic origins spectacular flourishing astonishing diversity cataclysmic extinction and
startling living legacy. Equally drawing on his own groundbreaking findings and the
cutting-edge research of the women and men who are revolutionizing our understanding of these
astonishing creatures Brusatte's captivating narrative?generously illustrated with original
drawings and photographs?traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as
small shadow dwellers in the Triassic period into the dominant array of species that arose
during the dinosaurs' peak. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods thousands of species
thrived including T. rex Triceratops Brontosaurus Velociraptor and more as well as winged
and feathered dinosaurs the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds. The story dramatically
concludes at the end of the Cretaceous 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.? An
instant classic and a worldwide bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a
treasured work for decades to come.
