The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

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Around 201 Ma, the supercontinent Pangea breaks up. This sparks a 600,000-year reign of terror with megamonsoons—extreme seasonal changes in wetness and dryness—plus volcanoes spewing out lava. “In all, some three million square miles of central Pangea were drowned in lava” (p. 87), treacherous weather and extreme climates. In this mass extinction event over 30% of all species, and maybe more, died out. It was this event, killing off the competition, which Brusatte claims allowed the dinosaurs to greatly diversify in response and rise to their dominant position. The second storyline is a history of the study of dinosaurs. These sections, intermingled with the first, delve into the questions of how we know what we know, and who helped us to know what we know. Though not as inherently entertaining, I found these segments equally valuable, especially with regard to the scientific method employed by paleontologists studying the fossil record. Brusatte answers fundamental questions about how we can glean so much information from ossified bones. He also highlights the occasionally vivid personalities of dinosaur hunters themselves. Of special note is Baron Nopcsa, a Romanian-born aristocrat who sought fossils in Transylvania when he wasn’t trying to become King of Albania. In short, this is good science writing, and engenders an appreciation for the discipline as a whole. Brusatte has written an eminently readable pop-science history of the dinosaurs, with accessible info on geology, biology, and the work of paleontologists, who are laboring tirelessly (and maybe obsessively) to find out the answers to questions that are as old as humanity’s awareness of the erstwhile inhabitants of our planet. This is one of those books that should be in every household. You do not need to be a scientist to get a lot out of it. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, bubbling with the enthusiasm of its author, will be an enjoyable and enlightening read for homo sapiens of all ages from pre-teen through fossil. Learning more about Earth’s illustrious, impressive, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes adorable former tenants never gets old. Really, who doesn’t love dinosaurs? It’s not just the wildlife, but the landscape itself that captivates. Brusatte discusses the world of Pangea, the consequences of that supercontinent’s rupture, and pays close attention to the effects of a changing climate on species in general, and dinosaurs in particular. Even though I have never spent more than five seconds thinking about these topics – and am still liable to confuse periods, eras, and epochs – Brusatte did an admirable job of keeping me from getting hopelessly lost.

The world changed a lot during their reign, starting of with a areas as large as Western Europe in Siberia being covered by lava at the end of the Perm. This caused 90% of all species to die 225 million years ago, by runaway climate change due to volcano eruptions and related greenhouse gasses. One of the things that has allowed modern paleontologists to make and continue to make ground-breaking discoveries about Earth’s former tenants is the major advance in technology at their disposal. It’s a lot easier, for example, to see inside a fossilized skull to measure the size and shape of internal cavities with the help of a CT scanner than it was before they were available. This book not only provides an overview of the current state of dinosaur research but also a history of paleontology and the characters who have worked in the field. It is a rapidly expanding field. Right now is the golden age of dinosaur research. Somebody, somewhere around the world, is finding a new species of dinosaur now, on average, once a week. So that’s 50-some new species a year, and that’s not a new bone or a new skeleton, that’s a totally new type of dinosaur that we never knew existed before.Prior to listening to this book, my knowledge of dinosaurs was based primarily on a smattering of news reports. Thus I previously had the impression that the bird-dinosaur relationship was a debatable hypothesis. But evidence now available seems quite convincing. The Liaoning fossils sealed the deal by verifying how many features are shared uniquely by birds and other theropods, not just feathers but also wishbones, three fingered hands that can fold against the body, and hundreds of other aspects of the skeleton. There are no other groups of animals, living or extinct, that share these things with birds or theropods. This must mean that birds came from theropods. Any other conclusion requires a whole lot of special pleading.Among the unique features shared by birds and dinosaurs is a respiratory system that provides highly efficient and light weight oxygen transfer system. No other species alive today has a respiratory system like this. To me this is the definitive proof of the relationship. Kudos, Mr. Brusatte, for pulling me in from the opening chapters and helping me to appreciate more of the world’s early inhabitants. I would love to delve into some of your other published work!About the only thing I was less keen on was that the author liked to talk about his palaeontologist pals, and tell us what great guys they all are. On the whole though this was a very likeable book, and informative too. Of course, my notions about dinosaurs also stopped growing after a couple of years, with the result that the last time I updated them, little Tim was still complaining about how crazy the theory that some of them may have learned how to fly was. Brusatte has written an eminently readable pop-science history of the dinosaurs, with accessible info on geology, biology, and the work of paleontologists, who are laboring tirelessly (and maybe obsessively) to find out the answers to questions that are as old as humanity’s awareness of the erstwhile inhabitants of our planet. This is one of those books that should be in every household. You do not need to be a scientist to get a lot out of it. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, bubbling with the enthusiasm of its author, will be an enjoyable and enlightening

Brusatte toes the current evolutionary mainstream line, stating that “Dinosaurs are still among us today. We’re so used to saying that dinosaurs are extinct, but in reality, over ten thousand species of dinosaurs remain” (p. 271). Overall: A brilliant combination of paleontology, research, and evolution detailing the rise and fall of the dinosaurs told by a dinosaur expert. Enthusiastic, fact-filled, and wonderfully written, anyone will learn and be captivated by this book 7.5/10But there was more to it than that, because continents don’t just split up and call it a day. As with human relationships, things can get really nasty when a continent breaks up. And the dinosaurs and other animals growing up on Pangea were about to be changed forever by the aftereffects of their home being ripped in two.” Steve Brusatte - looking for Triassic vertebrate footprints in a quarry in Poland – image from palaeocast.com (Sorry, dear. I could have sworn I dropped the engagement ring right here!) At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 200,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures who ruled the earth before us.

But wait, Prorotodactylus is not just an archosaur, it is actually a dinosauromorph, “a member of that group that includes dinosaurs and the handful of their very closest cousins” (p. 31). Thus, this archosaur-cum-dinosauromorph is actually a dinosaur? Sorry, where exactly did dinosaurs come from again? Allegedly, “At some point, one of these primitive dinosauromorphs evolved into true dinosaurs. It was a radical change in name only. The boundary between nondinosaurs and dinosaurs is fuzzy, even artificial” (p. 33). So much enthusiasm for the field is apparent in this book. Dinosaurs and their lives come to life, with the latest insights from science branching out in ever more remote places and fossil finds Robinson, P., Sorry, how many feathers did you find? creation.com/sorry-how-many-feathers-did-you-find, 1 December 2016. Return to text. The end of the Jurassic with the split of Godwana in multiple continents, leading to smaller scale climate change and greater diversity in the Cretaceous, is another example of how changes in environment induced changes in dinosaurs species, providing partly explanations for Sauropods splitting their ecosystem in niches and them dying out together with Stegosauruses' at the end of the Jurassic.

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In fairness, I did enjoy his description of what the dinosaurs would have experienced in the first few minutes after the asteroid impact. The Permian period was followed by the Triassic, from 250 to 200 mya, fifty million years of nature gone wild (I have that videotape in the attic, I think). Over the course of the Triassic, things on the land started to look like the world we know today. But the continents would have to drift for many millions of years yet before they would resemble our current landmass configuration. The first true dinos showed up around 230 to 240 mya. But they did not have the planet to themselves. There were reptiles, fish, birds, insects, even mammals, small ones, around at the time.

With infectious enthusiasm Stephen Brusatte tells the story from their humble beginnings to their rise to dominance and their ultimate downfall - almost fully extinguished by a cosmic catastrophe. Almost. Again, simple facts can be amazing. Let's cover the positives first. As an overview of 150 million years or more of dinosaur evolution, from their earliest emergence to their eventual extinction (or rather near-extinction, since, as Brusatte is at pains to point out, modern birds are the dinos' direct descendants), the book does exactly what it's supposed to. Once-hazy (for me) details about the prehistoric timeline, the evolutionary family tree, and the mechanics of extinction came into clearer focus, and there were a lot of great factoids and details I never learned (and which, for that matter, probably weren't even known yet) during my childhood dino phase.Even so, I loved his writing style. He was funny, light-hearted and used creative metaphors and clever wording. 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 Jingmai [O’Connor] calls herself a Paleontologista—fitting given her fashionista style of leopard-print Lycra, piercings, and tattoos, all of which are at home in the club but stand out (in a good way) among the plaid-and-beard crowd that dominates academia…she’s also the world’s number-one expert on those first birds that broke the bounds of Earth to fly above their dinosaur ancestors.