The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us ― A National Bestselling Science Book on Prehistoric Beasts

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, yet I read it cover-to-cover in 24 hours! The most phenomenal quality of this book is that the author doesn't start from where we are now and look backwards - that is, he doesn't just focus on the familiar present-day mammal lineages. Rather, nearly all of the book is tracing mammals (and Mammaliaforms) from their most distant synapsid origins in the Carboniferous up through the present. The entire world recognizes what mammoths and saber-tooth cats are - we've LIVED with them. But what are those other weird-looking animals? The things that look like rhinos with weird antler-horns (Brontotheres). The things that look like camels but with trunks (Macrauchenia). Those rhino-elephant-giraffe mashups (Indricotheres). How about all the vaguely fuzzy stuff from the dinosaur days? These are the stars of this book. Chapter 1 - Mammal Ancestors - focuses on the split of synapsids and diapsids. We start with pelycosaurs during the Late Carboniferous, and then move into the Permian world of therapsids (such as dicynodonts, dinocephalians, and gorgonopsians). Chapter 2 - Making a Mammal - focuses on the end-Permian and the Triassic. We especially focus on the cynodonts and how they survived and diversified during the early Mesozoic. Chapter 3 - Mammals and Dinosaurs - focuses especially on mammal jaw and teeth evolution, and how mammalian mouthparts are so unique. This sets us up for the next chapter. Chapter 4 - The Mammalian Revolution - flips the script on Mesozoic mammals. Usually this is framed as dinosaurs ruled and kept mammals as small background figures. But the author makes the very convincing case that mammals flourished and diversified during the Cretaceous, but just at small sizes. There were seed-eaters, tree-gliders, fish-predators, a few baby-dino predators, insect-munchers, burrowers. This is when multituberlicates as well as therians emerge. This is also when mammals teeth became even more specialized to grind and shear at the same time. Just as dinosaurs were the reason there were no large mammals, mammals were the reason there were no small dinosaurs. Chapter 5 - Dinosaurs Die, Mammals Survive - is of course about the K-T extinction. I appreciate that the author correctly points out that nobody REALLY won. Every clade on earth was negatively impacted by the extinction event, and mammals almost went extinct as well - thankfully, they happened to survive. He highlights certain factors that gave them SOME mammals better hand of cards such as small size, diverse food base, widespread, fast growth and reproduction. We also explore some topics such as monotremes and placentas. Chapter 6 - Mammals Modernize - is about the flowering of more recognizable clades. This is especially about placental mammals. Afrotheria (which today are golden moles, tenrecs, hyraxes, elephants, hyraxes, aardvarks, manatees). Xenarthra (which today are sloths, armadillos, anteaters). Laurasiatherians (which today are carnivorans, bats, everything with a hoof plus whales, pangolins). And Euarchontoglires (which today are lagomporths, rodents, primates). The chapter mainly focuses on the Paleocene and very early Eocene, and aside from those placental clade also includes all sorts of cool oddities such as marsupials, South American ungulates, and brontotheres. Chapter 7 - Extreme Animals - is basically about the Eocene diversification. Bats, rhinos, elephants, horses, whales, etc. Very neat! Chapter 8 - Mammals and Climate Change - is about the transition from a hothouse Paleocene/Eocene world to a cooler, grassier Oligocene world. This also includes information about grass evolution as well as the hoofed ruminants, and various predators that also evolved to deal with the new climate. Chapter 9 - Ice Age Animals - is about the Ice Age climate, how the Ice Ages continue to cycle between glacial and non-glacial periods, and about the fauna of the Ice Age (especially saber-tooth cats and mammoths, which did NOT really live together) Chapter 10 - Human Animals - is about primates and human evolution. I appreciate that most of this book is about extinct mammals - as in, the focus is not on relating this to contemporary animals or to human beings. Rather, we are learning about these diverse animals as they were and for their own sake. I also appreciate the attention to phylogeny. The author explains how different groups diverged, he explains crown and stem groups, he explained some of the distinguishing features, and he often does compare and contrast. The writing is absolutely solid - I read 400 pages in a day! He has a unique voice that allows him to communicate scientific thinking and terminology in a way that is comprehensible, convincing, and simply fun to read. There is a phylogeny at the front, as well as a timeline and a few maps. I would have preferred more, but I didn't feel that this was lacking. The book is filled with illustrations and photos, and I think he included the perfect amount. The bibliography is fantastic because it is annotated - for each chapter, he spends pages and pages explaining what books and papers he used and how you as the reader may want to use it. (NOTE: Do not read Adrienne Mayor, who shows up twice. Her work is bunk). This is a fantastic book. I learned a lot, the writing is great, and you will enjoy this even if you aren't typically a science reader.

As good as the Brusatte dinosaur book was, this one is even better. His writing is more mature, more focused, with less personal anecdotes- and the ones that he uses are very much about how he transitioned his scientific focus to early mammals. I really enjoyed this book, one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in the last decade, and am very excited about his forthcoming bird book- so much so that I have already prepurchased it. 1000% recommend this book and this author, he is a brilliant, talented, and ever-improving communicator scientist.

Dr. Brusatte is a truly exceptional Paleontologist, with a gift for writing in a style that is easily read and understandable for those non-academics who seek to learn more about this extremely interesting subject area. When he "remains in his lane" as an expert paleontologist, he is unquestionably terrific and a true master of the subject area. The reason I do not give this book 5 stars is that, very strangely, Dr. Brusatte decided to "step out of his lane of expertise" in the latter part of this book and wandered off into ice age theory, ice sheet theory, and climate change speculation. If I need to study ice age/ice sheet theory and climate change theory, perhaps it is best to read books written by geologists and climatologists? And, by using ice age theory as a crutch, he very strangely chose to completely ignore the important extinction level event of 11,500 years ago which wiped out all those wonderful mammals, such as mammoths, mastodons, wooly rhinos, dire wolves, and saber-toothed tigers, just to name a few. His dabbling into "man from monkey theory" was expected, but disappointingly shallow, with the usual obligatory salute to "Lucy the tree-ape", a skeleton with a clever facial makeover but with the actual forensics revealing just another tree ape. How many books will have to be hastily re-written, in the event that it is discovered that humans did not originate on Planet Earth? Even so, this book is well worth the time to read, as it contains very valuable paleontological information concerning mammals. Having read several of Dr. Brusatte's books, I notice that he tends to fall back on Charles Darwin, insisting that "natural selection does not plan for the future"; however, the genetic code appears to plan very well for the future. The animals destroyed by the extinction level event at the end of the Permian Period were improving right up to the end. The dinosaurs were also continuing to improve, right up to the end, culminating in the asteroid extinction event. And this book clearly shows how the genetic code keeps working hard to improve mammals. I have, without question, learned a tremendous amount of useful information from Dr. Brusatte!!

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes non-fiction about dinosaurs and their associated eras and times can be dense and wordy and difficult to get through for people who are just dipping their toes into the topic or who are newer. Happily The Rise and Reign of the Mammals does not have that problem. This well thought out and structured book takes us from the era of the dinos, when mammals were just beginning to get under the big reptiles’ feet to their eventual rise and dominance of the known world. Rise and Reign begins primarily within the Pennsylvanian era with stem-mammals and moves to our more modern times. One of my favorite things about this book is that as we move from large period to large period Mr. Brusatte regales us with a short narrative about something might have or might happen in the future to set the scene for what we’re about to see or have explained in the next section. He doesn’t focus in on the creature themselves, instead looking at each one in relation to what made it different and unique that added to the overall growth of the mammalian line (or bush if you want a more accurate descriptor). There are plenty of wonderful illustrations, charts, photos, and figures to keep things clear. I ended up taking a plethora of notes on the figures and charts as well as the text as they really helped me visualize what I was reading. Mr. Brusatte also keeps it fairly personal. Often referring to friends he has in the field or digs he’s gone on to tie into the bones and their discoveries. This made it seem more grounded than simple facts and added to the approachability of the book. Overall, this was a fantastic addition to my collection of dino and dino-adjacent shelves and I’d highly recommend for any other lovers of the topic and era in question. It’s long, yes, but take it in chunks or one long holiday and you’ll enjoy the journey, I promise!

Author is always informative and mixes first-hand accounts of field work with the look back at the distant past.

After schools banned phones my son discovered a love for books. He learned about this from some channel and he read it cover to cover in no time. Highly recommend.

This book is a stellar summary of the development of life on Earth during the last four billion years, with a primary focus on the "rise and reign" of mammals. I spent a long time reading it because the subject is relatively new to me. Occasionally, I stumbled over terminology, and I frequently felt the need to search for corollary information--particularly artists' renditions of some of the bizarre dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals that Brusatte describes. Overall, RISE AND REIGN has been an excellent contribution to my education. I am more convinced than ever that evolution is, in fact, creation in action--a process that continues at this very moment. Now more fully aware of all that has gone before, I feel quite small. Not surprised by what I've learned, just small. I am reminded of the words of God to Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" A lesson in humility for all who stop to think about the iconic phrase "In the beginning...."

This is a good book overall. When writing about the mammals he is excellent. Full of facts and well informed. But for a small percentage of the book, he talks about anthropological climate change. Here he gets downright silly. He makes statements that are completely debunked. He talks about rapid increases of temperature due to fossil fuel burning. He talks about rapid increase in ocean level. He never mentions the cycles that actually cause climate change. He gets pretty preachy at the last chapter and speculates wildly. This does detract from what is actually a very good book that I recommend. He should stay in his lane. Skip last chapter unless you want to laugh.

Eines der besten Bücher, die ich über die Materie bisher gelesen habe. Flüssig geschrieben, nie langweilig. Der gesamte Werdegang der Säuger ist aufgezeichnet, oft mit sehr überraschenden Erklärungen für bestimmte Entwicklungen. Ich war so gefesselt, dass ich mir ein weiteres Buch des Autors über die Saurier ebenfalls gekauft habe und das ist auch recht gut. Obwohl renommierter Wissenschaftler, sind die Erklärungen nie abgehoben und kompliziert.

This book is a fascinating and engaging read that brings millions of years of evolution to life. The author combines cutting-edge scientific discoveries with vivid storytelling, making complex concepts easy to understand without oversimplifying them. The book offers a fresh perspective on how mammals survived, adapted, and eventually came to dominate the planet. Whether you're a science enthusiast or simply curious about the history of life on Earth, this book is informative, entertaining, and hard to put down. Highly recommended for anyone interested in paleontology, evolution, or natural history.

Very readable

I loved this book. Took me back through an evolutionary story which fascinated and excited in equal measure. It all just makes so much sense and like a three dimensional jigsaw all fits together.

Ótima obra, conteúdo ideal para quem estuda Zoologia e necessita conhecer cada vez mais a respeito da classe Mammalia.