內容簡介
恐龍興亡史
恐龍的崛起和消失都早於人類出現的時代，因為對於這些地球的前統治者，能研究的資料、樣本不如其他生物，讓恐龍總是被蒙上一層紗，讓眾人各憑本事想像，這樣的神秘感讓牠們更迷人。
相信大多人對於恐龍的認識來自於好萊塢的熱門電影《侏儸紀世界》，或者來自偶爾出現攻擊東京的哥吉拉，但是這些電影中對於恐龍的描述都是正確的嗎？你知道曾經有種恐龍只有人類一般的大小、還有一種體型大過暴龍的兇猛食肉恐龍嗎？
本書作者史帝夫‧布魯賽特是知名的恐龍研究學者，他透過最新的科技、話時的分析、研究發現，拼湊出恐龍的完整故事。人類在地球上生存不到二十萬年，但卻已經面臨地球毀滅的問題，或許我們可以從這個地球的大前輩身上學到一點因應措施。
除了揭開恐龍的秘密，布魯賽特還特別分享身為一個古生物學家的想法，恐龍的熱愛讀者，或者對古生物有興趣的讀者不能錯過的一本好書！
66 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. Today, Dr. Steve Brusatte, one of the leading scientists of a new generation of dinosaur hunters, armed with cutting edge technology, is piecing together the complete story of how the dinosaurs ruled the earth for 150 million years.
The world of the dinosaurs has fascinated on book and screen for decades – from early science fiction classics like The Lost World, to Godzilla terrorizing the streets of Tokyo, and the monsters of Jurassic Park. But what if we got it wrong? In The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, top dinosaur expert Brusatte, tells the real story of how dinosaurs rose to dominate the planet. Using the fossil clues that have been gathered using state of the art technology, Brusatte follows these magnificent creatures from their beginnings in the Early Triassic period, through the Jurassic period to their final days in the Cretaceous and the legacy that they left behind.
Along the way, Brusatte introduces us to modern day dinosaur hunters and gives an insight into what it’s like to be a paleontologist. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is full of thrilling accounts of some of his personal discoveries, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs, monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex, and feathered raptor dinosaurs preserved in lava from China.
At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 200,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures who ruled the earth before us.