Sixty-six million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. Today a new generation of dinosaur hunters, armed with cutting-edge technology, is piecing together the complete story of how the dinosaurs created a hugely successful empire that lasted for around 150 million years.

In this hugely ambitious and engrossing story of how dinosaurs rose to dominate the planet, using the fossil clues that have been gathered using state-of-the-art technology, Steve Brusatte, one of the world's leading palaeontologists, follows these magnificent creatures from the Early Triassic period at the start of their evolution through the Jurassic period, to their final days in the Cretaceous and the legacy that they left behind.

Along the way, Brusatte introduces us to the cast of new dinosaur hunters and gives an insight into what it's like to be a palaeontologist whose job it is to hunt for dinosaurs. He offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable discoveries he has made, including primitive human-size tyrannosaurs, monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex, and feathered raptor dinosaurs preserved in lava from China.

At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 200,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures who ruled the earth before us.