The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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."