Bibliograph

The rise and fall of the dinosaurs, a new history of a lost world, Stephen Brusatte

Type

Label

The rise and fall of the dinosaurs, a new history of a lost world, Stephen Brusatte

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

mapsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The rise and fall of the dinosaurs

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

995296793

Responsibility statement

Stephen Brusatte

Sub title

a new history of a lost world

Summary

Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth's most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet's great mysteries. Paleontologist Steve Brusatte draws on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers -- themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period -- into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. He -creates the dinosaurs' peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, 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. Brusatte also offers accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made on globe-trotting expeditions, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China

Table Of Contents

Prologue : the golden age of discovery -- The dawn of the dinosaurs -- Dinosaurs rise up -- Dinosaurs become dominant -- Dinosaurs and drifting continents -- The tyrant dinosaurs -- The king of the dinosaurs -- Dinosaurs at the top of their game -- Dinosaurs take flight -- Dinosaurs die out -- Epilogue : after the dinosaurs

Target audience

adult

Classification