From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

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

Steve Brusatte

Start date: March 1, 2019

Finish date: March 31, 2019

Discussion: Book Club 2019

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Book Club 2019

December 2019 - Uninhabitable Earth
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Apr 02, 2019 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: academic-notations, science, history, non-fiction, teen-nerd

'The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs' is an excellent introduction to Dinosaurs for general readers. The book has lots of drawings and photographs illustrating a very high-spirited and picturesque narrative describing the evolutionary history and daily lives of dinosaurs through the three periods of Time (maybe 235 million years ago until 66 million years ago) when the original dinosaurs existed, walked about and ate each other (if they weren't the vegetarian ones). Of course, birds, which are di 'The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs' is an excellent introduction to Dinosaurs for general readers. The book has lots of drawings and photographs illustrating a very high-spirited and picturesque narrative describing the evolutionary history and daily lives of dinosaurs through the three periods of Time (maybe 235 million years ago until 66 million years ago) when the original dinosaurs existed, walked about and ate each other (if they weren't the vegetarian ones). Of course, birds, which are dinosaurs in disguise (my words) in their evolved state, still exist, so, many of us, including me, basically breakfast 🐣on dinosaurs 🦖 eggs every day 😁.

Bones which fit the definition scientists have decided means a dinosaur creature appear first in the Triassic period of Earth's geological history. Later, the bone record shows a flowering of many types of dinosaurs in the Jurassic age which followed the Triassic period. Dinosaurs disappeared suddenly in the Cretaceous period. How do we know this since no humans were around then? The book explains.

Since dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, all evidence of their existence is in dirt layers of the ground, in rocks, and in sea beds. People who love hiking and camping have been finding dinosaur bones and footprints for millennia in icky mucky and hot places (my opinion) all over the world ever since there have been explorers, ranchers, farmers, spelunkers, rock-climbers and construction workers. Needless to say, finding an almost complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton forty-two feet long in a field or a rocky hill excites people - especially scientists and lots of children, not that I am saying there is any correlation between immaturity and scientists, although many scientists confess to first adoring dinosaurs when they were children, including the author of this book, Steve Brusatte. ; )

My first favorite dinosaur was Cecil in ‘Beany and Cecil’ : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_N..., a kids’ cartoon show which was on Tv in 1962. I shoplifted a box of tiny plastic dinosaurs at my local five-and-dime when I was a kid. I wanted dinosaur toys SO bad! In my defense, I was ten years old and a ferocious T-Rex on occasion during playtime. Dinosaurs are simply awesome - ask any paleontologist! Who never had a dinosaur fascination? This book will only increase any dinosaur ❤️ love you have, gentle reader. From their skulls, some the size of small trucks, to the tips of their powerful tails, we readers learn about what the remains of this amazing animal tell people about their species. Brusatte describes some of the scientists who discovered dinosaurs and how they found bones as well.

Believe it or not, the intersection between the science of body structures and computers and Art have combined to allow us to make educated guesses about how dinosaurs moved and functioned. Based on studies of hip, spine and arm joints, on muscles and tissues and bones of current animals, on physics studies of living size/weight support structures of bodies, we now can ‘see’ vividly and accurately what dinosaurs were probably like. Some dinosaur bones have been discovered with fossilized tissue along with their bones. Microscopic and macroscopic examinations of dinosaur remains tell us who they are related to, what they ate (teeth structures), how they fought (claws and jaws and injuries to their bones), and what their age was at death (like trees, their bones have rings). Examinations of surrounding rocks where the dinosaur bones were found tell us what kind of environment the dinosaurs lived in and sometimes who they died with and from what. From such evidence as this we know some dinosaurs traveled maybe in packs, like wolves, probably even T-Rex! Mathematical studies of their stride from footprints can tell us their height, and from their fragments of bones we can extrapolate their size and weight.

The next time you find yourself staring at a plate of chicken bones, gentle reader, it is possible you are looking at an ancestor of a T-Rex. Perhaps it will give you pause for thought, as it did me while eating some fried chicken after reading 'The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs'.

What is it about dinosaurs that fascinates us?

Everything. Just, everything.

‘The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs’ includes a huge section on source notes, an index, and acknowledgments. ...more

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