Steve Brusatte

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals (eBook, ePUB)

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

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

'Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.' - The Sunday Times, 'Best Books For Summer'

The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They - or, more precisely, we - originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years.

Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines, incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their success story.

Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today's 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young - are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions.

In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of.

For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their - and our - story.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Pan Macmillan
• Seitenzahl: 528
• Altersempfehlung: ab 18 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Juni 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781529034240
• Artikelnr.: 63309157

Autorenporträt

Steve Brusatte, PhD, is an American paleontologist who teaches at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He is the author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. The paleontology advisor on the Jurassic World film franchise, Brusatte has named more than fifteen new species, including the tyrannosaur ?Pinocchio rex? (Qianzhousaurus), the raptor Zhenyuanlong, and several ancient mammals. His research and writing has been featured in Science, the New York Times, Scientific American, and many other publications.

Rezensionen

"The Rise and Reign of the Mammals is nothing short of a thriller, revealing the luck, evolutionary twists and near-apocalyptical catastrophes that have led to the mammals of today, us included." - The Guardian

"A whirlwind tour of mammal evolution. ... Brusatte's deep knowledge of the fossil record creates a rich tapestry in which each thread is a mammalian lineage. These interwoven threads dip in and out intermittently and sometimes disappear altogether in the finality of extinction, but those that remain always unspool in a bright burst of color to fill the gap." - Science

"Beautifully told. Brusatte writes with precision and panache. From tiny fossils he conjures up vivid worlds. Seen through his eyes, the mammals are every bit as engaging as the reptiles from whom they inherited the earth. ... When the first Jurassic Park film was released in 1993, it inspired a host of budding school-aged paleontologists. Brusatte was one of them. Don't be surprised if in decades to come this lovely book leads to more of them choosing to focus on the mouse-sized mammal rather than the megalosaurus." - The Times (UK)

"For the big-picture perspective, it's hard to imagine a better place to start than Steve Brusatte's fun-yet-magisterial The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, detailing mammals' 325-million-year residency on earth. ... The author of a previous bestselling book on dinosaurs, American-born, Scotland-based Brusatte has emerged as something of a star in the paleontology world. It helps that he's young, charismatic, and has good writing chops: each of the book's sections begins by drawing us in with a cinematic 'clip.'" - Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"[Brusatte] is a nimble storyteller and he's chosen an engrossing story to tell. ... It's satisfying to sit back and admire the full tapestry as presented in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. Reading this book reminded me what I most enjoy about geology, paleontology and the evolution of life on Earth: This planet has got some epic stories." - Science News

"Outstanding. ... Employs lucid prose and generous illustrations to describe the explosion of mammal species that followed the disappearance of dinosaurs. A must for any list of the best popular science books of the year." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Terrific. ... In one engaging chapter after another, Brusatte takes readers through the long story of the little mammals that took over the world from those tyrannosaurs. It's a fascinating story, and Brusatte fills it out with plenty of digressions about some of the people who dedicated their time to learning it." - Christian Science Monitor

"The story of the evolutionary history of mammals is told with elan in this clear, engaging book. Plenty of writers have tackled mammalian biology, but The Rise and Reign of the Mammals stands out for its brilliant balance of scientific detail and lively, efficient storytelling. Brusatte has a clear understanding of the book he is writing." - New Scientist

"Brusatte brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy (dinosaur) predecessors in a beautifully written book that ranges from armadillos the size of cars to elephants the size of miniature poodles and makes the case for them as creature who as just as engaging as dinosaurs." - Sunday Times (London)

"Five stars. Take a journey through time to the origins of life as we know it with this riveting read. A real page-turner that proves science fact is more amazing than science fiction." - The Sun (UK)

"In this detailed, deeply researched and entertaining book the author summarises why and how mammals have managed to hold sway for so much of the last 65 million years. ... Brusatte's real achievement is to show us that, for all its sheer weight of numbers and impact, Homo sapiens is just a single point, among millions of species over 200 million years." - The Spectator

"One of my favorite authors, one of my favorite scientists." - Ira Flatow, NPR's Science Friday

"A tour de force, charging through 350 million years of mammalian history. ... Brusatte is a great storyteller whose infectious curiosity permeates the book. He brings to life the often strange variety of early mammals." - The Explorers Journal

"This is a very beautiful story-driven, well-written book. This is like a fun novel you're reading." - Dax Shepherd, Armchair Expert

"The manner in which he tells the story, our story, is nothing short of prosaic prose transformed into poetry. ... Brusatte presents a myriad of facts about todays' mammalian cohabitors of our planet that will whet your appetite and fire up your imagination." - Times of Israel

"An epic sweep of hundreds of millions of years of mammalian evolution. ... Not sure how he does it, but Brusatte makes sections on how molar shapes evolved into can't-miss page-turners. You won't look at the animal world the same way again after this one." - Adventure Journal

"With the demise of dinosaurs almost 66 million years ago came the flourishing of our branch of the tree of life-- mammals. Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, tells the epic story of how our mammalian cousins evolved to fly, walk, swim, and walk on two legs. His enthusiasm and deep knowledge infuse this lively journey of millions of years of evolution with infectious enthusiasm." - Neil Shubin, bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and University of Chicago paleontologist

"Today, mammals, especially humans, dominate life on earth, both on land and in the oceans. We think of ourselves as the apex of all life. But it was not always so, and this book is a fascinating account of how mammals survived the great extinction that destroyed the dinosaurs and evolved to their current position of dominance. A worthy sequel to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by the same author." - Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Cambridge University biologist