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The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
A sweeping and groundbreaking history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists.
The dinosaurs. 66 million years ago, the Earth's most fearsome and spectacular creatures vanished. Today their extraordinary true story remains one of our planet's great mysteries.
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 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.
- Listening Length10 hours and 7 minutes
- Audible release dateApril 24, 2018
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB079STL1ZH
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 10 hours and 7 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Steve Brusatte |
Narrator | Patrick Lawlor |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | April 24, 2018 |
Publisher | Harper Audio |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B079STL1ZH |
Best Sellers Rank | #2,889 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1 in Biology of Fossils #1 in Paleontology (Audible Books & Originals) #1 in Rock & Mineral Field Guides |
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Top reviews from the United States
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First off, if you're the type of person who expects books on scientific subjects to be a drag to read, have no fear in this case. Steve Brusatte is clearly writing with a mentality very close to what an effective teacher needs to keep students engaged, which is to say: be entertaining, present the information in a lively way, give the audience's enthusiasm room to effectively drive their learning forward. This is not a dry fact-dump, but a "story," for want of a better description. It tells the history of the dinosaurs with vigor, often stepping into side-stories about the paleontologists who work to uncover and deduce the details of that story. Thus you learn not only about the dinosaurs, but about the many and varied intrepid men and women who work to find out all they can about them and other aspects of natural history.
The book begins with a colorful description of what the world must have been like in the Permian period, transitioning into the Triassic, where dinosaurs were (contrary to previous belief) bit players, and this is a strong way to open, because it ties in with those side-stories about paleontology, and here we begin to see some discussion on the changing views about dinosaurs and how paleontologists can indeed be mistaken about their findings. It continues on from there. Readers of this book who are willing to and interested in learning about these topics will find this to be an excellent place to begin learning about dinosaurs and paleontology, and those already in the know will likely enjoy it as a refresher course.
The hardcover edition is well-formatted, with a fitting selection of visually-pleasing yet easy-to-read text fonts and a fairly generous use of illustrations, photographs, and occasional diagrams where needed. The Kindle version is a little dodgier by the nature of what it is. The first paragraph or so of any given chapter sub-section has an oddly larger text font than the following paragraphs, but the only difficulty arises from those illustrations and such, which tend to be shrunk-down to fit whatever your display screen is... as is the case with most e-books, these elements do not make the smoothest transition, but this is a perfectly serviceable way to enjoy the book if you are reading it, say, on public transit, or on break at work.
The audiobook's reading works quite well, though I note that at the time of this review Audible narration does not work for the Prologue chapter, even though it is indeed in the audiobook. I assume there was an oversight in programming, and have reported this to customer service. It may even have been fixed by the time you read this review. Other than that and the obvious lack of photographs and images in the audiobook, the manner in which this reading is presented may strike listeners as a tiny bit too geared toward younger audiences, with some exaggeration in voice tone when the reader wants things to sound exciting or intriguing that was quite a long way from how my mental voice vocalized the text while reading it independent of audio accompaniment. That said, it's a pleasant listen. I just hope they fix that Audible narration problem with the prologue.
All in all, I highly recommend this book for those interested in the subject, especially in hardcover, as it's a very nice addition to anyone's bookshelf. Readers be forewarned, however. Paleontology is an advancing science at all times, and the information in this book is likely to go out of date in a surprisingly short span of time, as the educational material from the nineties and 2000's did. If you find it interesting enough to pursue, however, you might consider staying up-to-date on paleontological finds and theories on your own time by following the works of both Dr. Brusatte and others in his field. It certainly can't hurt to know more about the planet you were born on, yes?
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2018
First off, if you're the type of person who expects books on scientific subjects to be a drag to read, have no fear in this case. Steve Brusatte is clearly writing with a mentality very close to what an effective teacher needs to keep students engaged, which is to say: be entertaining, present the information in a lively way, give the audience's enthusiasm room to effectively drive their learning forward. This is not a dry fact-dump, but a "story," for want of a better description. It tells the history of the dinosaurs with vigor, often stepping into side-stories about the paleontologists who work to uncover and deduce the details of that story. Thus you learn not only about the dinosaurs, but about the many and varied intrepid men and women who work to find out all they can about them and other aspects of natural history.
The book begins with a colorful description of what the world must have been like in the Permian period, transitioning into the Triassic, where dinosaurs were (contrary to previous belief) bit players, and this is a strong way to open, because it ties in with those side-stories about paleontology, and here we begin to see some discussion on the changing views about dinosaurs and how paleontologists can indeed be mistaken about their findings. It continues on from there. Readers of this book who are willing to and interested in learning about these topics will find this to be an excellent place to begin learning about dinosaurs and paleontology, and those already in the know will likely enjoy it as a refresher course.
The hardcover edition is well-formatted, with a fitting selection of visually-pleasing yet easy-to-read text fonts and a fairly generous use of illustrations, photographs, and occasional diagrams where needed. The Kindle version is a little dodgier by the nature of what it is. The first paragraph or so of any given chapter sub-section has an oddly larger text font than the following paragraphs, but the only difficulty arises from those illustrations and such, which tend to be shrunk-down to fit whatever your display screen is... as is the case with most e-books, these elements do not make the smoothest transition, but this is a perfectly serviceable way to enjoy the book if you are reading it, say, on public transit, or on break at work.
The audiobook's reading works quite well, though I note that at the time of this review Audible narration does not work for the Prologue chapter, even though it is indeed in the audiobook. I assume there was an oversight in programming, and have reported this to customer service. It may even have been fixed by the time you read this review. Other than that and the obvious lack of photographs and images in the audiobook, the manner in which this reading is presented may strike listeners as a tiny bit too geared toward younger audiences, with some exaggeration in voice tone when the reader wants things to sound exciting or intriguing that was quite a long way from how my mental voice vocalized the text while reading it independent of audio accompaniment. That said, it's a pleasant listen. I just hope they fix that Audible narration problem with the prologue.
All in all, I highly recommend this book for those interested in the subject, especially in hardcover, as it's a very nice addition to anyone's bookshelf. Readers be forewarned, however. Paleontology is an advancing science at all times, and the information in this book is likely to go out of date in a surprisingly short span of time, as the educational material from the nineties and 2000's did. If you find it interesting enough to pursue, however, you might consider staying up-to-date on paleontological finds and theories on your own time by following the works of both Dr. Brusatte and others in his field. It certainly can't hurt to know more about the planet you were born on, yes?
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a thrilling journey both in the present and ancient past. Steve takes readers from place to place on the globe, using his personal experiences and stories to guide the dinosaur-curious minds through the long, wondrous evolutionary tale of our distant reptilian cousins. Along the way, you'll meet many paleontological figures – before reading the book I had known or at least heard of many of them and it is nice to have furthered my knowledge of them through the oft witty descriptions given by the author. Steve presents the story in this book with his amazing rhetorical writing skills, producing a fantastic marriage between art and science that keeps the readers riveted along the ride. Throughout the book you will bone-deeply feel his immense passion for dinosaurs, and science more generally, as well as clearly see that Steve is a man of humility – I'd really love to chew the fat with him over a ketoprak dinner in Jakarta, if I have the chance. Tyrannosaurus rex is undoubtedly the most famous non-bird dinosaur and Steve treats us to one chapter fully devoted to the "tyrant lizard king". The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs certainly deserves a place on any dinophile's bookshelf and is too good to be left unread.
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2024
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a thrilling journey both in the present and ancient past. Steve takes readers from place to place on the globe, using his personal experiences and stories to guide the dinosaur-curious minds through the long, wondrous evolutionary tale of our distant reptilian cousins. Along the way, you'll meet many paleontological figures – before reading the book I had known or at least heard of many of them and it is nice to have furthered my knowledge of them through the oft witty descriptions given by the author. Steve presents the story in this book with his amazing rhetorical writing skills, producing a fantastic marriage between art and science that keeps the readers riveted along the ride. Throughout the book you will bone-deeply feel his immense passion for dinosaurs, and science more generally, as well as clearly see that Steve is a man of humility – I'd really love to chew the fat with him over a ketoprak dinner in Jakarta, if I have the chance. Tyrannosaurus rex is undoubtedly the most famous non-bird dinosaur and Steve treats us to one chapter fully devoted to the "tyrant lizard king". The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs certainly deserves a place on any dinophile's bookshelf and is too good to be left unread.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Brazil on April 6, 2024