The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

English language

Published June 7, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:
978-1-5290-3422-6
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5 stars (1 review)

Though humans claim to rule the Earth, we are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals. Indeed humankind and many of the beloved fellow mammals we share the planet with today--lions, whales, dogs--represent only the few survivors of a sprawling and astonishing family tree that has been pruned by time and mass extinctions. How did we get here?

In his acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs--hailed as "a masterpiece of science writing" by the Washington Post--American paleontologist Steve Brusatte enchanted readers with his definitive his - tory of the dinosaurs. Now, picking up the …

2 editions

A fascinating book about how mammals rose and dominate the large animal world

5 stars

A fascinating book about mammals, starting with their origins in the Carboniferous, alongside the group that would become the dinosaurs, then following their development through the various ages before becoming the dominant large animals after the downfall of the non-avian dinosaurs. The book makes clear that mammals did not develop from dinosaurs, nor were mammals prevented from diversifying during the age of dinosaurs (some common myths). Instead, mammals may be small, but they diversified and occupied various ecological niches before the asteroid strike gave mammals the opportunity to get large. Even then, it was not a given that our kind of mammals (placentals) would dominate the Earth, as placentals shared it with other kinds of mammals before eventually dominating the Earth. The book closes with a look at the current extinction crisis being faced by mammals (and other animals).

What follows is a chapter by chapter summary.

  • Mammal Ancestors: the …

Subjects

  • Zoology