ktxx22's review against another edition
5.0
This nonfiction book is one of the most fun I’ve had reading a nonfiction book about science in my life! I love it chapter after chapter and each new one gifted me with knowledge, factoids, and one hell of an interesting story! This is a book for the entire family. If you have ever in your life been interested in dinosaurs you need to read this, and that includes all of us who are big fans of the Jurassic Park franchise! I was so entertained by the educational information in this book that I’m gonna buy a copy to keep at home to share with my husband and future children. Easy 5/5
kidicarus64's review against another edition
4.0
Quite a nice and easy to read book about dinosaurs, their birth, their incredible evolution, and their "disappearance". The overall narrative is strong and the writing quite enthralling. I now want to dig the subject more—a feeling I believe speaks in great length about the quality of this book.
superiorweasel's review against another edition
4.0
Great book. It's full of incredible discoveries and demonstrates the author's love of dinosaurs. There are some cringey sentences that are placed throughout to tell a story. Yet, they left me wondering if the author was possibly drinking when that one sentence was written. The beginning was dry, in my opinion, because there was an excessive amount of information at once. I struggled with reading some of the names of the dinosaurs, but fixed that by abbreviating them to first and last syllable only. For someone who does not study dinosaurs at all this book is written well to grab the attention of a general audience.
abbyy258's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
Needed to be at least 150 pages shorter. The way the author described every non-white American paleontologist… wack. But very cool info on dinosaurs.
raj_page's review against another edition
5.0
The book makes us want to pack our bags and immediately leave on an expedition to find fossils.
jbmorgan86's review against another edition
3.0
This book was exactly what I wanted: a pop-science book about dinosaurs. Brusatte covers the traditional dinosaur talking points (yes, some dinosaurs had feathers) but also tears down some older theories and public conceptions about dinosaurs (especially in Jurassic Park). I enjoyed learning about paleontology and famous paleontologists, but he gets a bit too caught up in describing every paleontologist he’s ever met.
Fun facts that I learned (or re-learned):
• Paleontologists are discovering a new species of dinosaur nearly every week (around fifty a year)!
• “Dinosauromorphs” are critters that look like dinosaurs but slightly precede dinosaurs in the evolutionary chain
• The continents of Pangea have been given names
• Continents drift about the same speed as human fingernails grow
• A baby T-Rex gains about 5 lbs a day for the first decade.
• A grown T-Rex eats about 12 lbs of meat a day
• T-Rex is North American. Other tyranosaurs have been found in Asia
• Birds are dinosaurs. No, seriously. They don't just resemble birds. Just as humans are mammals, birds actually belong to the classification of dinosaurs. The birds we see today are the survivors of the asteroid strike in the Yucatan 65 million years ago.
• Dinosaur feathers are not like modern bird feathers. Rather than long, quill-like feathers, they were more like fuzz. The original purpose was not to fly. Most likely they were colorful and were meant to attract mates.
Fun facts that I learned (or re-learned):
• Paleontologists are discovering a new species of dinosaur nearly every week (around fifty a year)!
• “Dinosauromorphs” are critters that look like dinosaurs but slightly precede dinosaurs in the evolutionary chain
• The continents of Pangea have been given names
• Continents drift about the same speed as human fingernails grow
• A baby T-Rex gains about 5 lbs a day for the first decade.
• A grown T-Rex eats about 12 lbs of meat a day
• T-Rex is North American. Other tyranosaurs have been found in Asia
• Birds are dinosaurs. No, seriously. They don't just resemble birds. Just as humans are mammals, birds actually belong to the classification of dinosaurs. The birds we see today are the survivors of the asteroid strike in the Yucatan 65 million years ago.
• Dinosaur feathers are not like modern bird feathers. Rather than long, quill-like feathers, they were more like fuzz. The original purpose was not to fly. Most likely they were colorful and were meant to attract mates.