The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Remarkable Animals

As you may remember, Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" is good, but has some problems that keep it from being great ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R1H5PAIZYRT2B/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). When I 1st heard about "The Age of Dinosaurs" (henceforth Age) being a junior edition of Rise, I was hopeful that Rise's problems wouldn't be Age's problems.* Age IS better in some ways, but not in others. In this review, I list those ways.The following things make Age better in some ways:-Age is MUCH easier & more visually appealing to read: For 1, it's broken up into more & shorter chapters; For another, there are more illustrations to support & break up the text; For yet another, Brusatte's long field stories are contained in breakout boxes (as opposed to the main text). I especially like the inclusion of said boxes. Said stories are very interesting & relevant, but not necessary to understanding the main text. In fact, they remind me of "Epic Rap Battles of History" when George R.R. Martin says to J.R.R. Tolkien, "You went too deep, Professor Tweed-pants! We don't need the backstory on every f***ing tree branch!"-Brusatte seems to have learned from many of his text & writing mistakes in Rise. This is especially apparent in the facts that 1) more of Age's animal size comparisons work than do Rise's (3/4 vs. 2/3, respectively), & 2) there are only 2 equine size comparisons in Age, neither of which work (which is unfortunate, but also proves my point).The following things keep Age from being better in other ways:-Remember what I said about breakout boxes earlier? Unfortunately, Brusatte uses them not just for his long field stories, but also for some of the contextually-important parts of Rise (E.g. Rise's discussion of Allosaurus as "the Butcher of the Jurassic"). Furthermore, others are left out of Age entirely (E.g. There's no equivalent to Rise's discussion of the other Morrison Formation theropods in Age). Point is, Age might be a bit too easy to read, more like a Cliff Notes version of Rise than a junior edition.-Remember "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" when Hammond is like, "Don't worry, I'm not making the same mistakes again", & Malcolm is like, "No, you're making all new ones"? Unfortunately, Brusatte does a little bit of both in Age: In reference to "making the same mistakes again", this is especially apparent when he repeats Austroposeidon's size overestimates (Quoting Molina-Pérez/Larramendi: "It is mistakenly believed to be the largest sauropod in Brazil");** In reference to "making all new ones", this is especially apparent when he incorrectly pluralizes "T. rex" as "T. rexes".In short, I recommend reading Age in conjunction with either Howard's "Dinosaur Empire! (Earth Before Us #1): Journey through the Mesozoic Era" if you're closer to age 8 or Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" if you're closer to age 12. 1 more thing of note: This is more of a nit-pick, but Age's full title is very WTF. In fact, it reminds me of a Rifftrax joke about "Dragon Wars: D-War" ("I dunno boys[...]They're both amazing titles. I can't pick. Hey, let's use both! Go get some boba tea drinks!").*This was mostly because Brusatte had acknowledged the wrongness of his claim that T. rex "had chimp-like intelligence" (Google "Steve Brusatte on Twitter: The paper includes an important").**See "Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Sauropods and Other Sauropodomorphs". It's 1 of the books I use for fact-checking.

This is an excellent book. I read the original version - Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs - along with my son, who read this. Same book, different reading levels. Very interesting and he loved it!

I purchased this book for my 7 yr old nephew. He's a big dinosaur fan.....he loved looking at it and seeing all the pictures. I didn't actually see the book.....ordered it and had it shipped directly to him...

An excellent read for newcomers to paleontology. It is an easy to understand description of the "big picture," as well as sidebars on why and how things happened.

clear and well organized writing

Does a very good job of picking up and explaining current knowledge. Parents should read the author's book for grownups.

My little has read it twice! He loves dinosaurs and this book!

O livro chegou em péssimas condições. Não vale o preço que paguei. Deveria ter sido vendido como usado. Falta de respeito e honestidade com o consumidor. O conteúdo do livro é bom para quem quer conhecer a respeito.