The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

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Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today’s 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young – are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions. With the extinction of the dinosaurs, the rise of mammals turned into a reign. Isolated on various land masses after the supercontinent Pangaea had fragmented, they were poised for a slow-motion taxonomic starburst that would play out over the next 66 million years. In the northern hemisphere, placental mammals replaced multituberculates and metatherians and rapidly evolved into primates and the odd- and even-toed ungulates. The latter two evolved giants: brontotheres, chalicotheres, and cetaceans.

mammals took over the world - Science News How mammals took over the world - Science News

The Jurassic and Cretaceous are the eras during which dinosaurs dominated the realm of large life forms while mammals were masters of the world of small creatures. During this period no mammal got bigger than a badger, but they were very diverse and thrived in their own world of hiding in the shadows, underground, and under bushes. Meanwhile, the smallest known dinosaur was about the size of a pigeon with most of them being much larger. 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 I had a similar reaction to The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, paleontologist Steve Brusatte’s sweeping history of the animals that have, for the moment, inherited the Earth. Moving generally forward in time, the book describes how the mammalian line progressively acquired a range of features that have come to define what a mammal is. Scintillating. ... Brusatte’s mastery of his field, formidable explanatory powers and engaging style have combined to produce a masterpiece of science writing for the lay reader. I would add that you’ll find Rise and Fall fascinating even if you don’t give a damn about dinosaurs—but first, show me someone who doesn’t give a damn about dinosaurs. Washington Post The effusive American even began as a T rex expert before branching out into studying mammal fossils. But there’s a simple reason why he’s so passionate about the latter. As he says in his new book: “Dinosaurs are awesome, but they are not us.”

Neil Shubin, bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and University of Chicago paleontologist 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 [Steve Brusatte's] The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs. The really widespread extinction of megafauna occurred in the last 100,000 years (much of it in the last 10,000 years) when humans spread throughout the world. One of the weirdest extinct species worth mentioning is the Chalicothere which is so unlike anything alive today that it required DNA analysis to figure out its ancestry. This creature, as well as many other extinct mammals, lived recently enough to allow the acquisition of DNA samples. As a science consultant for the forthcoming film Jurassic World Dominion, Brusatte has nothing against dinosaurs, and the shelves of his office are teeming with sketches, plastic models and even origami creations of the beasts. Mammal Ancestors: the story of mammals starts in the Carboniferous period. Two groups of animals would develop from the early amphibians: the Diapsids (reptiles and dinosaurs) and Synapsids (mammals). As the climate became drier, they diversified in various ways. For Synapsids, their teeth would become diverse, allowing them to handle different kinds of food. The Synapsids would lead to the Therapsids, who have a more upright posture. At this time, indications that this group is becoming warm-blooded become apparent. They would also develop one mammalian feature: hair.

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History [PDF] [EPUB] The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History

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 today’s Earth. Brusatte also brings alive the lost worlds mammals inhabited through time, from ice ages to volcanic catastrophes. Entwined in this story is the detective work he and other scientists have done to piece together our understanding using fossil clues and cutting-edge technology. Mammals Modernize: the Eocene period would be populated by mainly placental mammals that were now larger. They are also recognizable when compared to modern day mammals. Modern DNA analysis can now be used to generate the family tree of mammals. They showed that the first placental mammals to appear were the hoofed animals and primates, followed by the rodents and carnivores. South America would have its own host is mammals different from the northern continents, including predatory marsupials. But DNA would show that South American rodents and primates were from Africa, probably arriving via drifting vegetable rafts from Africa. Wow! Steve Brusatte's "The Rise and Reign of the Mammals" is a wonderfully worthy sequel to his "Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs". My knowledge of the evolution of mammals has always been pretty sparse; I'd always imagined early mammals as boring little rat-critters running around trying not to be stomped by giant reptiles. (Okay, I did know that they weren't actually rodents, but that's all I could picture.) This book showed me how incredibly wrong I was.

A tour de force, charging through 350 million years of mammalian history. ... Brusatte is a great storyteller whose infectious curiosity permeates the book. He brings to life the often strange variety of early mammals." — The Explorers Journal Proceeding in much the same vein as the excellent The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, this follows the evolution of the mammalian lineages from the early synapsid proto-mammals right through to modern mammals including carnivora, rodents, primates, whales and bats. Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.’ – The Sunday Times, ‘Best Books For Summer’ 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

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals - Google Books

Terrific. ... In one engaging chapter after another, Brusatte takes readers through the long story of the little mammals that took over the world from those tyrannosaurs. It’s a fascinating story, and Brusatte fills it out with plenty of digressions about some of the people who dedicated their time to learning it." — Christian Science Monitor

A whirlwind tour of mammal evolution. … Brusatte’s deep knowledge of the fossil record creates a rich tapestryin 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 Brusatte brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy (dinosaur) predecessors in a beautifully written book that ranges from armadillos the size of cars to elephants the size of miniature poodles and makes the case for them as creature who as just as engaging as dinosaurs." — Sunday Times (London) Along the way, Brusatte brings readers face to face with our distant ancestors, including the last common ancestor of mammals and reptiles: a small, scaly, swamp-dwelling creature that lived about 325m years ago. Other highlights include a chapter dedicated to the most unique mammals still living today, such as bats and whales, and the chapter dedicated the the ice age icons; the Woolly Mammoths and Sabre Toothed Tigers.