The Rise And Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

The Rise And Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

The little kid who loved dinosaurs is my inner child. He’s still in there and occasionally stirring the surface. And he’s the reason I loved this deep time, overview of the dinosaurs and their world. It’s accessible, pleasant, enthusiastic and I learned something.This is my kind of popular science book. I will recommend it for everyone who’s inner child is one that was fascinated with dinosaurs. 5 stars ★★★★★

I saw this at the library. I saw it in their Libby app and it was on sale at Amazon for $1.99. Obviously, the universe is trying to tell me something. So, when my hold in Libby came through, I started listening and reading. Patrick Lawlor was the narrator and he really sold the enthusiasm on the book folks. I had to keep checking to see if it was the author narrating.

Anyway, it all starts with one of the great die offs. But to get perspective on that, Brusatte paints an interesting picture of the world that came before.

From that extinction event, he takes us through the dinosaurs' evolution as well as paleontological history (and some mis-steps). I had to keep flipping back and forth to the geological time chart to place myself in time. Bursatte takes the readers from dinosaurs’ early days when they were a minor player, to the changes that made the theropods and sauropods we know and recognize, to their peak of diversity and dominance. And he takes us to the fall as the asteroid hits. 

Along the way, we learn a lot about how paleontologists know what they know about dinosaurs (ans.: stats and math, plus extrapolating from modern day animals). We learn where the great discoveries of paleontology have happened, especially in the 20th and 21st century (ans.: South American and China) and what those taught us about the range and types of dinosaurs. Plus, the personalities of the paleontologists involved going all the way back to the fossil wars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Finally, he makes a good case the dinosaurs are still with us today. As birds. I mean, everytime I walk out in the parking lot, the local grackles convince me that they’re related to dinosaurs, particularly when they’re tussling with each other or putting on displays. 

The book covers a huge range of topics and time, periodically stopping to dive deeper into something interesting. It’s impossible for Brusatte to cover everything, but what he does cover he makes interesting and entertaining. Patrick Lawlor does an excellent job narrating and sounds like he’s also got an inner child that was fascinated with dinosaurs too. 

Highly recommended – especially to those that are dino curious, or who’s paleontology information is woefully out of date. 5 stars ★★★★★