Overview

By the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a ""brilliant"" and ""beautifully told"" new history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us [New Scientist; The Times UK] National Bestseller - Top 10 Nonfiction of the Year: Kirkus - Best Science Book of the Year: The Times UK 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.

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9780063242081

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Reviews

The ultimate dinosaur biography. ... Despite our cultural obsession with dinosaurs, there is much to their story that has been left untold until now. ... Brusatte weaves together the origins of dinosaurs, their rise to global dominance and their dramatic demise. He anchors the tale in riveting fossil discoveries from around the globe and his own love affair with these remarkable life-forms. --Scientific American Vivid. ... This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance and abrupt demise. --Nature If John McPhee's love affair with rocks in Annals of the Former World floats your boat... you're going to love The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. Brusatte skillfully brings dead dino bones to life as he shares--no, gushes about--his personal journey as a young fossil hunter and the people he's met along the way. ... The geek in me loves the tsunami of fine details flooding the page, written in the breezy style of a rising star millennial scientist. ... The beauty of this book lies in the details... and in the stories of the scientists who dig them up. [The] emotional connection, and Brusatte's collection of personal stories and characters, make his book special. --New York Times Book Review Scintillating. ... Brusatte's mastery of his field, formidable explanatory powers and engaging style have combined to produce a masterpiece of science writing for the lay reader. I would add that you'll find Rise and Fall fascinating even if you don't give a damn about dinosaurs--but first, show me someone who doesn't give a damn about dinosaurs. --Washington Post The Science Book of the Year. --Sunday Times (London)

Today, mammals, especially humans, dominate life on earth, both on land and in the oceans. We think of ourselves as the apex of all life. But it was not always so, and this book is a fascinating account of how mammals survived the great extinction that destroyed the dinosaurs and evolved to their current position of dominance. A worthy sequel to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by the same author.--Venki Ramakrishnan, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Cambridge University biologist With the demise of dinosaurs almost 66 million years ago came the flourishing of our branch of the tree of life-- mammals. Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, tells the epic story of how our mammalian cousins evolved to fly, walk, swim, and walk on two legs. His enthusiasm and deep knowledge infuse this lively journey of millions of years of evolution with infectious enthusiasm.--Neil Shubin, bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and University of Chicago paleontologist

A whirlwind tour of mammal evolution. ... Brusatte's deep knowledge of the fossil record creates a rich tapestry in which each thread is a mammalian lineage. These interwoven threads dip in and out intermittently and sometimes disappear altogether in the finality of extinction, but those that remain always unspool in a bright burst of color to fill the gap. -- Science Beautifully told. Brusatte writes with precision and panache. From tiny fossils he conjures up vivid worlds. Seen through his eyes, the mammals are every bit as engaging as the reptiles from whom they inherited the earth. ... When the first Jurassic Park film was released in 1993, it inspired a host of budding school-aged paleontologists. Brusatte was one of them. Don't be surprised if in decades to come this lovely book leads to more of them choosing to focus on the mouse-sized mammal rather than the megalosaurus. -- The Times (UK) [Brusatte] is a nimble storyteller and he's chosen an engrossing story to tell. ... It's satisfying to sit back and admire the full tapestry as presented in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. Reading this book reminded me what I most enjoy about geology, paleontology and the evolution of life on Earth: This planet has got some epic stories. -- Science News Outstanding. ... Employs lucid prose and generous illustrations to describe the explosion of mammal species that followed the disappearance of dinosaurs. A must for any list of the best popular science books of the year. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Reluctant to foreground mammalian ingenuity, Brusatte slyly sneaks it in through the back door. Human cleverness is exemplified by the unstinting praise Brusatte gracefully extends to his colleagues, many of them women. -- Wall Street Journal The manner in which he tells the story, our story, is nothing short of prosaic prose transformed into poetry. ... Brusatte presents a myriad of facts about todays' mammalian cohabitors of our planet that will whet your appetite and fire up your imagination. -- Times of Israel The story of the evolutionary history of mammals is told with elan in this clear, engaging book. Plenty of writers have tackled mammalian biology, but The Rise and Reign of the Mammals stands out for its brilliant balance of scientific detail and lively, efficient storytelling. Brusatte has a clear understanding of the book he is writing. -- New Scientist Five stars. Take a journey through time to the origins of life as we know it with this riveting read. A real page-turner that proves science fact is more amazing than science fiction. -- The Sun (UK) If you loved Steve Brusatte's runaway bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, you ought to keep an eye out for its sequel of sorts, which tracks the journey of mammals from our humble beginnings as survivors of a global catastrophe to one of the dominant forces on the planet. -- Thrillist In this detailed, deeply researched and entertaining book the author summarises why and how mammals have managed to hold sway for so much of the last 65 million years. ... Brusatte's real achievement is to show us that, for all its sheer weight of numbers and impact, Homo sapiens is just a single point, among millions of species over 200 million years. -- The Spectator With the demise of dinosaurs almost 66 million years ago came the flourishing of our branch of the tree of life-- mammals. Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, tells the epic story of how our mammalian cousins evolved to fly, walk, swim, and walk on two legs. His enthusiasm and deep knowledge infuse this lively journey of millions of years of evolution with infectious enthusiasm. -- Neil Shubin, bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and University of Chicago paleontologist Today, mammals, especially humans, dominate life on earth, both on land and in the oceans. We think of ourselves as the apex of all life. But it was not always so, and this book is a fascinating account of how mammals survived the great extinction that destroyed the dinosaurs and evolved to their current position of dominance. A worthy sequel to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by the same author. -- Venki Ramakrishnan, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Cambridge University biologist

Outstanding. ... Throughout, the author employs lucid prose and generous illustrations to describe the explosion of mammal species that followed the disappearance of dinosaurs. A must for any list of the best popular science books of the year. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) With the demise of dinosaurs almost 66 million years ago came the flourishing of our branch of the tree of life-- mammals. Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, tells the epic story of how our mammalian cousins evolved to fly, walk, swim, and walk on two legs. His enthusiasm and deep knowledge infuse this lively journey of millions of years of evolution with infectious enthusiasm. -- Neil Shubin, bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and University of Chicago paleontologist Today, mammals, especially humans, dominate life on earth, both on land and in the oceans. We think of ourselves as the apex of all life. But it was not always so, and this book is a fascinating account of how mammals survived the great extinction that destroyed the dinosaurs and evolved to their current position of dominance. A worthy sequel to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by the same author. -- Venki Ramakrishnan, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Cambridge University biologist

Author Information

Steve Brusatte, PhD, is an American paleontologist who teaches at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He is the author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. The paleontology advisor on the Jurassic World film franchise, Brusatte has named more than fifteen new species, including the tyrannosaur ""Pinocchio rex"" (Qianzhousaurus), the raptor Zhenyuanlong, and several ancient mammals. His research and writing has been featured in Science, the New York Times, Scientific American, and many other publications.

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