Summary & Study Guide--The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

If you thought you knew all about dinosaurs, you will learn much more in this book.

The must-read 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?

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