Summary of Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 The world the scaly creatures lived in was changing. The swamp forest was being invaded by the sea. The small creatures were one of hundreds of animal species that had called the swamp forest home.

#2 The story of mammal evolution is the result of two lines of evidence. Paleontologists have two key lines of evidence to prove that around 325 million years ago, there were small, scale-covered critters that lived in lush swamp forests that were frequently inundated by rising seas.

#3 The second type of evidence is all around us. It doesn’t require any special skill to find, and it’s DNA, which we and all other organisms carry inside of our cells. DNA is the blueprint that makes us what we are, the genetic code that controls what our bodies look like, our physiology and growth, and how we produce future generations.

#4 The Pennsylvanian period was the first time that the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia came together. It was also the first time that trees grew to be large enough to be called forests, and the first time that many mosquitoes and other small animals evolved.