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

Book Review 

Title: Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of the Old World by  

Genre: Science/History 

Rating: 4 Stars  

This book was one I saw in Waterstones, and it caught my eye, I didn’t buy it at the time, but I did eventually get an eBook version because I was intrigued by the idea of going through the history of the dinosaurs, especially the lesser well-known ancestors of the dinosaurs. The opening introduces us to dinosaurs through the perspective of a paleontologist whose job it is to uncover the remains and history of these long dead animals. The dinosaurs that we all picture when we hear the word dinosaur aren’t the ones that dominated Pangea for the most part, but we do get to see how they evolved into those creatures we know so well. 

The early ancestors of the dinosaurs were interesting and not the dominant species in their humid regions of Pangea. In fact, it was the opposite they were outnumbered and outclassed by almost every other ancient species from amphibians to mammals. However, the dinosaurs found a way to evolve and live outside of the humid regions they started in. They also diversified into many different branches over time which led to the variety we see in fossils today. However, there are still a lot of lingering questions about why the dinosaurs evolved the variety they did and at the speed the did but answers are finally starting to emerge.  

Like with any evolution there are several different factors that came together to create the dinosaurs we recognize today but it was a very slow process in the beginning. The first was the environmental factors as when Pangea began to separate into the continents we live on today, it created several opportunities for different species. For the dinosaurs, it separated some of them from the top predators at the time, allowing them to become the dominant species, for others, it provides a unique environment that allowed them to grow to extreme sizes both large and small. The separation of Pangea also had the side effect of providing more diverse regions where different species of dinosaurs could thrive, but this also meant in the modern age, that certain dinosaur fossils are only found in specific regions like T-Rex being primarily found in North America and Asia rather than anywhere else in the world.  

Another reason that dinosaurs became the dominant force they did was due to the decline or extinction of other top predators at the time, creating a space for them to thrive that hadn’t been present before. This space along with the environmental factors allowed many dinosaurs to grow to extreme sizes in a very short space of time which can be seen in species like T-Rex and the Brontosaurus. Seeing how the scientist discovered these facts through their digs and computer-generated simulations showing how the dinosaurs grew and moved was something I hadn’t considered before but it makes complete sense. When the dinosaurs stepped into the dominant space, we must remember that they did share these spaces with species that are known today as modern reptiles and mammals. These species were also evolving over time but at a less extreme rate than the dinosaurs.  

The chapters that interested me the most where the extinction chapters, looking at the events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and what this meant for the species that survived. For the longest time, the asteroid theory wasn’t accepted because it seemed so out there that many scientists favored the slow extinction theory. However, evidence was soon uncovered of a massive impact overlapped the USA and Mexico which all but solidified the idea that an asteroid or comet wiped out the dinosaurs. The way the author explains what the dinosaurs would have experienced during these hours and following days was insane, like the plot of a movie, but also grounded at the same time. A combination of the initial impact, extreme heat and weather as well as a scarcity of food combined to bring the reign of the dinosaurs to an end, but it didn’t wipe them all out as dinosaurs are around today in the form of birds.  

Many claim that dinosaurs are extinct and for a long time, no one believed that birds evolved from the massive creatures, however, shared genetic features show a distinct relationship between dinosaurs and birds that can’t be explained except in the fact that they share an evolutionary lineage. However, one thing that stumped many is why birds were feathered when dinosaurs were believed to be scalier like reptiles. However, in recent years some amazing fossils have been found that show that some dinosaurs did have feathers, and some could even fly. The feathers are believed to have evolved initially as a mating mechanism much like modern peacocks but over time as they showed a distinct advantage to those that had them became the modern feather that allowed smaller dinosaurs to take to the skies and evolve the ability to fly.  

When you compare these dinosaur fossils and modern birds the similarities are striking. Everything, right down to their skeletal structure is mirrored through time solidifying the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. In our modern age, we can see this even better in certain animals, like the emu, ostrich and cassowary which scream dinosaur without even looking deeper into it. Honestly, while this book took me a little while to complete it was something extremely interesting to dive deeper into and the pictures provided by the author and others in his field were stunning and really sent the message home that everything within the book is real despite how crazy some of it can seem. Overall, if you are interested in dinosaurs or evolution in general and how animals adapted with the separation of Pangea and multiple extinction level events then definitely pick up this book.