Last of the Giants: The Rise and Fall of Earth s Most Dominant Species

Today, an ancient world is vanishing right before our eyes: the age of giant animals. Over 40,000 years ago, the earth was ruled by megafauna: mammoths and mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths. Of course, those creatures no longer exist, due to the evolution and arrival of the wildly adaptive human species, among other factors. Many more of the world's biggest and baddest creatures - including the black rhino, the dodo, giant tortoises, and the great auk - have vanished since our world became truly global. Last of the Giants chronicles those giant animals and apex predators who have been pushed to extinction in the modern era.

Jeff Campbell, author of Daisy to the Rescue (2014) and Last of the Giants (2015), is a writer and book editor who has enjoyed a diverse 25-year career in publishing. He was an award-winning travel writer for Lonely Planet for over a decade, coauthoring a dozen travel guides, including several editions of USA, Hawaii, Florida, and Southwest. As a book editor, he has specialized in nonfiction, notably helping to develop four of Dr. Marc Bekoff’s books on the emotional lives of animals, which inspired his passion for his own writing about animals. Currently, Jeff is also a part-time creative writing teacher for grade school students in Morristown, New Jersey, where he lives with his wife and children.