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

Would it blow your mind to discover that the timespan separating us from the tyrannosaurus rex is smaller than the timespan separating the T-rex from the stegosaurus? That is just one example of the incredible breadth of history covered by The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a phenomenal tome chronicling the ebbs and flows of various prehistoric eras and the lives of the dinosaurs and other amazing creatures that inhabited the Earth at the time.

Brusatte’s brain-meltingly detailed timeline of dinosaur history takes us through different eras — exploring the conditions for life, what we know of the food chain and the predator-prey hierarchies of each period, and more — bringing to life the staggeringly alien worlds that the Earth has been in the past. Along the way, he catalogs different dig sites that revealed crucial information for the dinosaur timeline, as well as anecdotes from both history and his own experiences parsing the complex genealogy of various dinosaur species.

Not only is this the best, most engrossing book about dinosaurs I’ve ever read, but it’s a book that manages to make you truly believe and understand what life was like for these creatures. Staring at a skeleton and letting your imagination wander is all well and good, but it takes a scientist AND a writer like Brusatte to bring that world to life in startling detail.