The Rise and fall of the Mammals

By one of the stars of modern paleontology (National Geographic), a sweeping and revelatory new history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us

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 todaylions, whales, dogsrepresent 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 bestsellerThe Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurshailed as a masterpiece of science writing by the Washington PostAmerican paleontologist Steve Brusatte enchanted readers with his definitive his - tory of the dinosaurs. Now, picking up the narrative in the ashes of the extinction event that doomed T-rex and its kind, Brusatte explores the remarkable story of the family of animals that inherited the Earthmammals and brilliantly reveals that their story is every bit as fascinating and complex as that of the dinosaurs.

Beginning with the earliest days of our lineage some 325 million years ago, Brusatte charts how mammals survived the asteroid that claimed the dinosaurs and made the world their own, becoming the astonishingly diverse range of animals that dominate todays Earth.