Reviews
Vivid. ... This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance and abrupt demise., "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 "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) "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, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Cambridge University biologist
