Informative yet engaging. This is the first book I've read on this subject before but I thoroughly enjoyed it! A fascinating insight and journey through the past and the history of mammals/dinosaurs.
An easy read for anyone with no previous knowledge of the subject.
I would recommend this to friends and family and encourage them to read it.

First off, you don't need to be well-versed in palaeontology to get a lot out of this book. "Beasts Before Us" is written intuitively and with humour, making it fairly easy to grasp the subject matter. I found this book hugely exciting (this is US, our history, our Earth!!) and devoured every chapter. I can only hope Elsa Panciroli writes more books in the future.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Having recently enjoyed Stephen Brusatte's 'Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs', I pounced on this book. By and large, I enjoyed it too, and I'm pretty sure I can sense some influence from Brusatte in its pages (I assume the two authors are well acquainted given that they both work out of the Uni. of Edinburgh).

Fans of 'Walking with Beasts' (I am guilty as charged) will be disappointed if they're hoping for stars like Basilosaurus or Indricothere to turn up. The evolutionary timescale of the book ends a little after the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, I must credit Panciroli for getting me so thoroughly enthused about all our smaller, older ancestors (and the many, many cousins whose lineages have now ended). I have only a layperson's interest in palaeontology, but I found it rewarding to dive into the science and details I've never stopped to appreciate before, such as the unique and remarkable history of mammalian dentition. That said, there is an absolute deluge of species names and technical terminology, and I fear I will retain few specifics!

Panciroli is an energetic narrator, occasionally taking us back to her fieldwork in the present day, or into the recent past of palaeontology. I always appreciate these kinds of interjections; they definitely help refresh the mind. The humour/pop culture references sometimes felt too try-hard, but that's my main complaint.

Although I must admit that I am still more interested in the bigger, more recent mammalian species to have graced our planet, reading this book has once again reminded me of the astonishing wonder of Earth's evolutionary history.

(With thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

I could tell from the introduction - from the very first page, that I was going to love this book. I immediately gelled with the authors writing style - I absolutely loved it. Palaeontology is a loved hobby read for me and I could endlessly read books about this subject and this one really stood out for me.

It was a fantastic walk through mammalian past and a chance to journey through history. A book to shine the light on an under represented area of palaeontology where dinosaurs tend to reign supreme.

Taking a stop through some historical names unearthing the origins of the mammal story, the book details some of the authors own expeditions and field work as well as dipping into past discoveries and explaining concepts and information on all things mammalian.

As the author says in her book - this is a smorgasbord of the tastiest morsels into mammalian history. It was really well written, being both entertaining and informative. It was enlightening, and easy to read for anyone with no prior knowledge of the subjective and those who knew a little about this topic before.

It was very informative and I really enjoyed reading it. I also liked the addition of the epilogue at the end which was very well tied into the rest of the book - explaining Anthropogenic extinction and how that can be related to the past and where we go from there in the future. Brilliant book all in all!