The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

Excellent book for dinosaurs lover

Excellent book! Very informative and enlightening!

When the book is still receiving awards you know how great a book this is. It's a must have for everyone. The best literary piece on prehistoric life. Brusatte made me his fan !

It’s great to know the history of world’s deadliest species... i loved it

I like the way the writer has described about how dinosaurs evolved. Paper quality is nice ,,weight less simply it's an awesome book,thanks to steve for such an awesome book

Must read for everyone to understand the past of our mother earth.

For a qualified biologist with specialization in Evolutionary Biology, not much new insights to know. Few interesting facts written on Dinosaur evolution, like the evolution of feathers, which is still not a common enough knowledge among general readers, I think. Drags a bit at times and may be too drab for some. Otherwise, good enough for one read. No problem with the Kindle edition.

Steve Brusattes THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DINOSAURS ist für meine Begriffe eines der schönsten Sachbücher, welches ich in diesem Jahr gelesen habe. Brusatte versteht es, lebendig, witzig und informativ zugleich zu schreiben. Die Kapitel sind (selbst wenn man sich für Paleontologie interessiert) lehrreich und geben den aktuellen Stand in zahlreichen Unterdiskussionen wieder, und auch komplette Neulinge auf dem Thema werden an diesem Buch ihre Freude haben. Gleichzeitig ist dieses Buch einfach sehr menschlich geschrieben - Brusatte schreibt nicht nur über Dinosaurier und ihre Zeit, sondern auch über die Menschen, die der Erforschung dieser einzigartigen Tiere ihr Leben widmen. Hierbei stellt er dem Leser einige durchaus skurrile und denkwürdige Charaktere vor, was THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DINOSAURS zu einer alles anderen als trocknen Lektüre macht. Insofern kann ich mich kurz fassen: ein sehr unterhaltsames und gleichzeitig sehr lehrreiches Buch. Die Lektüre habe ich schlichtweg genossen. Von mir gibt es verdiente 5 Sterne.

Steve Brusatte, a Professor of Paleontology at Edinburgh University, is a brilliant writer who brings to life the story of the dinosaurs from circa 300 to 60 million years ago. The history of the dinosaurs is explained relative to the changing land mass of the planet and their discovery up into the present where so many new finds are being made. Each era is conjured with visual imagery of the dinosaurs in their setting. An active field worker, the narrative is full of anecdotes and firsthand experience of paleontologists in the field and in the laboratory. It is an analytical, absorbing and exciting read.

For anyone who likes dinosaurs and prehistoric life this is a College-Level education but written in a very accessible way. The writing style is so good, so informative and easy to digest. Some parts touch on the in-depth science but never so deep that you drown in information or statistics. Every aspect of this book is enjoyable and inspiring. There are some books that when finished you know you will read again some day. I am tempted to restart right now. From the earliest times of the precursors of dinosaurs through the myriad types, with an occasional focus on one or two, and then through to the end of this amazingly successful lineage of dinosaurs. This book has it all. Did I say I loved it? Well I do.

(Slight Rev03) Nowadays dinosaurs' fossils are investment for the rich (also Leonardo DiCaprio) and some paleontologists are a celebrity. Our image on T-Rex have changed from a reptile-looking to sporadic birdy-feather-skin appearance also the rout cause eradicating the most of species has been defined as due to the collision of a meteorite. These two definitions are not what I knew in my childhood or when watched the first version of "Jurassic Park" in 1993. Darwinism has worked on dinosaurs making a genetic link between birds not reptiles and this scientific discovery was done by contemporary technologies including statistics.

I found the information presented in this book to be fascinating. This is an absorbing scientific study which presents up to date discoveries and knowledge about dinosaurs and the facts should be accessible to any interested reader. I admired Stephen Brusatte’s writing style and his brilliant description of three eras of the earth; the Triassic, Jurassic and the Cretaceous. He describes shifting geological patterns, the landscapes, climate, and types of animal life during each stage. He writes vivid scenes of the plant life and the dinosaurs roaming the earth or small creatures hiding away in burrows. He draws a terrifying picture of a series of cataclysmic events at the close of the Cretaceous era which lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. I still have the book The Dinosaur Heresies published in 1986. Dr.Robert Bakker presented a new way of thinking about dinosaurs. His speculations were in collaboration with some paleontologists but stirred up a lot of controversy among others. He considered dinosaurs to be not the slow, lumbering, cold-blooded beasts, but warm-blooded, quick and intelligent. Far from a failure, they dominated the earth for 150 million years and suppressed the development of mammals. The theory presented was that birds are the direct descendants of small carnivorous dinosaurs. These dinosaurs had an advanced heart/lung system like modern birds and the theory was they were warm-blooded. Previously dinosaurs had been classified as reptiles, but scientific thought removes them from that category. The writer gives us some interesting bits about being a geeky boy obsessed with dinosaurs and later as a student of paleontology. He describes his travels in pursuit of a greater understanding of dinosaurs, and to excavation sites where new types of dinosaurs were being discovered. He has been criticized for name-dropping about his encounters and works with other leading paleontologists, but I found he wrote about them with respect, praising them highly and giving them credit for their theories and discoveries. I was impressed by how much the leading scientists in the field cooperate with one another. He relates his travels to China in the 1990s when the first small raptor dinosaur fossils were discovered with feathers, and with bone and lung structures which indicate they are the direct ancestors of birds. Further study has revealed that their feathers were brightly coloured and iridescent. They had not evolved for flight as yet. I saw a coloured illustration in the Smithsonian Magazine which showed a crow-sized dinosaur with a rainbow of shiny feathers. Its fossilized remains were found in China and the artistic reconstruction is quite beautiful. Recommended for readers interested in the history of the earth and past living creatures.