"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." —Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller • Goodreads Choice Awards Winner • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian, Science Friday, The Times (London), Popular Mechanics, Science News "This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous." —Nature The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before. In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field—naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork—masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing 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. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages. 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. This gifted scientist and writer re-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, one full of lessons for today as we confront a “sixth extinction.” Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research—which he calls “a new golden age of discovery”—and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China. An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs’ epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come. Includes 75 images, world maps of the prehistoric earth, and a dinosaur family tree.

The world’s leading paleontologist takes us on a visual tour of the latest dinosaur science, illustrated with accurate and stunning paleoart. Dinosaurs are not what you thought they were—or at least, they didn’t look like you thought they did. Here, world-leading paleontologist Michael J. Benton brings us a new visual guide to the world of the dinosaurs, showing how rapid advances in technology and amazing new fossil finds have changed the way we see these extinct beasts forever. Stunning, brand-new illustrations by paleoartist Bob Nicholls display the latest and most exciting scientific discoveries in vibrant color. From Sinosauropteryx, the first dinosaur to have its color patterns identified—a ginger-and-white striped tail and a “bandit mask”—by Benton’s team at the University of Bristol to recent research on the surprising mixed feathers and scales of Kulindadromeus, this is one of the first books to include cutting-edge scientific research in paleontology. Each chapter focuses on a particular extinct species, featuring a specially commissioned illustration by Bob Nicholls that brings to life the latest scientific breakthroughs, with accompanying text exploring how paleontologists have determined new details, such as the patterns on skin and the colors of feathers of animals that lived millions of years ago. This visual compendium surprises and challenges everything you thought you knew about what dinosaurs looked like and how they lived.

"The best general-audience dinosaur book since the Dinosaur Renaissance began in the 1970s."—Philip J. Currie, coeditor of Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, from the foreword “Dinosaur Odyssey is not only a personable and highly accessible tour of the up-to-date discoveries about the gigantic and famous. It also builds on dinosaur paleontology to far-ranging topics like extinction, climate change, and the possibility of life on Mars. The gift to the reader is both fascination and enlightenment.”—Michael Novacek, author of Terra and Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs "An odyssey indeed! One of the world's leading dinosaur paleontologists, Sampson draws on a wide variety of sciences, from astronomy and cosmology to microbiology and ecology, in order to portray dinosaurs as living animals. The reader is in for a treat and will emerge with fresh and valuable insights."—Peter Dodson, author of The Horned Dinosaurs

Delves into the mysteries of prehistory to consider the biology of various dinosaur species, their environments, the cause of their extinction, the evolutionary probability of living dinosaur descendants, and more

If you thought you knew all about dinosaurs, you will learn much more in this book. This book is a summary of “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World,” by Steve Brusatte. Dinosaurs, the world's most fearsome creatures, vanished sixty-six million years ago. Now Steve Brusatte has revealed their 200-million-year-long story as never before. In The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Brusatte tells the story of the origin and demise of the most intriguing class of animals ever lived. Drawing on cutting-edge science, he reveals how dinosaurs evolved from small insignificant animals 250 million years ago into apex predators that ruled the entire planet. He re-created the dinosaur kingdoms in North America, Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, when thousands of species thrived. He describes the most famous dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and how dinosaurs evolved into birds. The story continues to a day at the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. Billions of dinosaurs all over the world woke up on that day feeling confident about their place in nature. Then, in a split second, nearly all of the dinosaurs died in the most extraordinary extinction event in Earth's history. If it could happen to dinosaurs, could it happen to us? This guide includes: * Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts. * Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth. Value-added from this guide: * Save time * Understand key concepts * Expand your knowledge

Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that followed, more than half of known species vanish seemingly overnight. But this worst single day in the history of life of Earth was as critical for us as it was for the dinosaurs, as it allowed for evolutionary opportunities that were closed for the previous 100 million years. In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries and the million years after the impact. Life's losses were sharp and deeply felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now.

Fully illustrated and immersive guide to the latest research in these incredible animals. Discover the groundbreaking developments in dinosaur research with this state-of-the-art guide to dinosaur biology. Written by experts from a leading dinosaur research centre, this book begins by tracing the evolution of the dinosaur from 225 million years ago through to the end of the Cretaceous Period, exploring how they lived and what happened during the great extinction event. Research on these fantastic animals is proceeding at a faster pace than ever before. Dinosaurs explores the most recent global discoveries and the major role that new technologies play in revealing previously inaccessible and unknown details about how dinosaurs lived, such as the use of CT-scanning we can now look inside a dinosaur skull and gain new information on brains and sense organs. This engaging book reveals the latest findings about dinosaur anatomy and behaviour, evolution, diversity and lifestyle, and is lavishly illustrated with artwork, photographs and artistic reconstructions that bring these iconic creatures to life.