"We are witnessing a revolution in paleontology, a golden age of great discoveries, and you, dear reader, have a front-row seat to this spectacle."
——Javier Santaolalla, Particle Physicist and Science Communicator

"A highly recommended read."
——Elena Cuesta, Paleontologist Specializing in Dinosaurs

"Francesc Gascó combines the rigor of his academic training with a fresh and approachable style, through which he has brought paleontology to diverse audiences."
——ualnews, University of Almería

For centuries, fossils were enigmas: whims of nature, remains of giants, signs of the great flood. How did we progress from such explanations to modern paleontology? What had to change in our way of thinking for stones to begin telling the story of life?

Francesc Gascó, author of the successful That Wasn't in My Dinosaur History Book, traces the journey of paleontology from its foundations: the Renaissance cabinets where Gessner cataloged his first collections, the disputes between catastrophists and uniformitarians about the age of the Earth, the Bone Wars that put North America on the paleontological map, the dinosaur metabolism revolution… all the way to modern methods that recover ancient DNA and reconstruct soft tissues.

This book also reveals the milestones that transformed our understanding of life's history: the discovery of extinction as a natural phenomenon, the birth of the geological time scale, the Darwinian revolution, the debate over whether dinosaurs were clumsy reptiles or complex, dynamic animals. But above all, it is a narrative about how we learned to interpret the past: about the scientific method building itself, about correspondence networks that connected isolated naturalists, about collections that democratized knowledge, and about errors that opened new questions.

Francesc Gascó Lluna
Hold a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Valencia and a PhD in Paleontology from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Specializing in dinosaur paleobiology, he serves as the Scientific Director of the Benagéber Museum and has participated in numerous research projects and initiatives to promote paleontological heritage. Passionate about science since childhood and a dedicated communicator for nearly two decades, he has introduced paleontology and evolution to thousands of people through lectures, workshops, blogs, YouTube, Instagram, and other formats. He has collaborated on television programs, documentaries, and films, and is the author of numerous books, including I Found a Dinosaur Bone in My Garden, Pop Paleontology, and That Wasn't in My Dinosaur History Book.