biology

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Rise and Reign of the Mammals rather than just read about it. In short: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us is a 2022 book on the evolution of mammals by paleontologist Steve Brusatte. The book received positive reviews, with reviewers praising his storytelling.

Key takeaways

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Rise and Reign of the Mammals to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Rise and Reign of the Mammals from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us is a 2022 book on the evolution of mammals by paleontologist Steve Brusatte. The book received positive reviews, with reviewers praising his storytelling.

Background The author, Steve Brusatte, is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh. His first popular science book for adults, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, was published in 2018. He began his career as a dinosaur paleontologist, but since then, he had shifted his research focus to mammals, wondering "what happened next" after the dinosaurs. The Rise and Reign of the Mammals was published June 7th, 2022 by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Illustrations were provided by Todd Marshall and Brusatte's former PhD student Sarah Shelley.

Contents Beginning with the split between the ancestors of mammals and reptiles in the Carboniferous era, the books traces the evolution of mammals chronologically to the present day. It begins with the last common ancestor of mammals and reptiles and covers the evolution of mammals within a physically smaller niche compared to the larger dinosaurs. He then covers how mammal lineage survived the asteroid impact that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs, and their evolution into the larger niches previously occupied by dinosaurs. This eventually brings us to the modern day and the evolution of humans, though where the book touches on the human lineage, it focuses primarily on non-human primates, and Homo sapiens is given "about the same attention as horses and whales and elephants." Brusatte concludes the book with a discussion on the potential for human or mammalian extinction, comparing the potential end of mammalian dominance to the extinction of the dinosaurs that allowed mammals to flourish. As in The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Brusatte intersperses descriptions of modern and historical paleontological work and his own experience with studying mammals with descriptions of mammalian evolution.

Reception Reviewers praise Brusatte's storytelling and big-picture overview of mammalian evolution. Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas in Austin, praises the book for including a diverse array of female palentologists, in contrast to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. She criticizes the book for an instance of misleading phrasing, but overall calls it a "compelling and energetic guide" to mammals.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Rise and Reign of the Mammals claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Rise and Reign of the Mammals before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Rise and Reign of the Mammals ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

In research: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Rise and Reign of the Mammals in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2022 English-language non-fiction books, Books about evolution, Evolution of mammals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Rise and Reign of the Mammals outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Rise and Reign of the Mammals in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Rise and Reign of the Mammals means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Rise and Reign of the Mammals out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Rise and Reign of the Mammals in simple terms?

Why does The Rise and Reign of the Mammals matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Rise and Reign of the Mammals?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Rise and Reign of the Mammals.