The story of the dinosaurs is one that’s been told over millennia. But within the last few decades, what we thought we knew about their rise and fall is being rewritten. For example, scientists have discovered that dinosaurs weren’t the dominating species we thought they were the moment they arrived on the scene—it took millions of years before a stroke of luck allowed them to conquer the world.

[How to draw dinosaurs for a living.]

Twenty-five years ago, the film Jurassic Park hit the screen and inspired a generation of kids to grow up to become the fossil hunters. Now, they are currently rewriting the story of the dinosaurs. One of those young fossil hunters is Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and author of the new book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World. He joins Ira to discuss the many discoveries that mark this current era a golden age for dinosaur hunting.

Read an excerpt of Brusatte’s new book.