Steve Brusatte, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs," brings mammals out of the shadows of their more spectacular predecessors. In this well-written and outstanding book, he tells the incredible story of how mammals came to be and argues that they are just as fascinating as dinosaurs.

The extinction of the era of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to dominate. However, mammals have a much deeper history. They—or more accurately, we—originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, more than 200 million years ago, while the roots of mammals go even further back, some 325 million years ago.

During these vast geological timescales, mammals developed their characteristics: fur, keen senses of smell and hearing, large brains, acute intelligence, rapid growth, and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive set of teeth, mammary glands used by mothers to nurse their young, qualities that have supported their success.

From this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals we know today, including our own species and our close relatives. Nevertheless, today's 6,000 mammals are merely the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned by time and mass extinctions.

In "The Rise and Reign of the Mammals," Brusatte combines the history and evolution of our mammalian ancestors, iconic mammals like marsupials and saber-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, as well as fascinating species that few of us know. In this captivating and groundbreaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their story—and ours.