
So this is our story: the tale of our deepest origins, of our ancestors, of how our kin have survived over 325 million years, of everything the Earth and the cosmos have thrown at us. How did mammals take over from the dinosaurs? And ultimately I've learned it's as fascinating a story as the story of dinosaur evolution. But the more I've worked on dinosaur history - as I've followed them from their origins, to their evolution of colossal size, to their extinction - I naturally started to wonder what happened next. I began my career as a dinosaur researcher and spent most of the last two decades working on them.

I love dinosaurs and always will be fascinated by them. Your new book is about mammals, so I have to ask: What happened to dinosaurs? You've always been known for your remarkable research on dinosaurs and you're even the paleontology advisor for "Jurassic World: Dominion" Why did mammals grab your attention? Steve Brusatte is an American paleontologist who teaches at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He traces the evolution of mammals up to the present day, sharing quirky facts (did you know that mammals' ear bones were once part of the jaw?) and introducing readers to the scientists who have made the study of mammals what it is today. In his new book, Brusatte dives into the mammalian lineage dating back to the synapsids, a bizarre group of animals that lived during the Carboniferous period (359 million to 299 million years ago) that eventually evolved into the mammals. Few are better poised to tell this tale than Brusatte, chair of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, whose first book, The New York Times bestseller " The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" (Mariner Books, 2018), connected readers with the diversity of scientists and their myriad discoveries about the dinosaur age.

In the book, " The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us," released on Tuesday (June 7) by Mariner Books, paleontologist Steve Brusatte answers these questions and more.
