New from the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (?A
masterpiece of science writing.? ?Washington Post) and ?one of the stars of modern
paleontology? (National Geographic) a sweeping and revelatory history of mammals illuminating
the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us. We humans are the inheritors of
a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years through fiery cataclysm
and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers woolly mammoths
armadillos the size of a car cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly clever scurriers
that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex and even other types of humans like Neanderthals. Indeed
humankind and many of the beloved fellow mammals we share the planet with today?lions whales
dogs?represent only the few survivors of a sprawling and astonishing family tree that has been
pruned by time and mass extinctions. How did we get here? In his acclaimed bestseller The Rise
and Fall of the Dinosaurs?hailed as ?the ultimate dinosaur biography? by Scientific
American?American paleontologist Steve Brusatte enchanted readers with his definitive history
of the dinosaurs. Now picking up the narrative in the ashes of the extinction event that
doomed T-rex and its kind Brusatte explores the remarkable story of the family of animals that
inherited the Earth?mammals? and brilliantly reveals that their story is every bit as
fascinating and complex as that of the dinosaurs. Beginning with the earliest days of our
lineage some 325 million years ago Brusatte charts how mammals survived the asteroid that
claimed the dinosaurs and made the world their own becoming the astonishingly diverse range of
animals that dominate today's Earth. Brusatte also brings alive the lost worlds mammals
inhabited through time from ice ages to volcanic catastrophes. Entwined in this story is the
detective work he and other scientists have done to piece together our understanding using
fossil clues and cutting-edge technology. A sterling example of scientific storytelling by one
of our finest young researchers The Rise and Reign of the Mammals illustrates how this
incredible history laid the foundation for today's world for us and our future.
