The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

"Where science usually yadda-yaddas the gory details, Black’s The Last Days of the Dinosaurs reconstructs that bad day and its fallout in vivid, sometimes granular detail."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"A marvelous look at what happened after the asteroid hit Earth will make readers feel like a kid discovering dinosaurs for the first time. Black blends the intricacies of science with masterful storytelling for a cracking, enchanting read."—Newsweek

"A must-read."—NewScientist

"A deeply compelling narrative . . . The Last Days of the Dinosaurs would fit equally comfortably on the bookshelf of a die-hard dinosaur enthusiast, someone revisiting their childhood love of dinosaurs or paleontology, and anyone interested in the science of extinction or the transition from the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals."—Science Magazine

"While engaging and approachable, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs is scrupulously rooted in information gathered by paleontologists, geologists, astronomers, physicists and ecologists."—Science News

"Immerse yourself in the last moments of the dinosaur empire, as Riley Black weaves a tale of destruction, survival, and rebirth in the wake of a killer asteroid. You feel what T. rex and Triceratops felt as their world ended in an apocalypse of fire and famine on the single worst day in Earth history, and what our mammal ancestors felt as they emerged on the other side, in a ghostly void ripe for renewal. This is pop science that reads like a fantasy novel, but backed up by hard facts and the latest fossil discoveries. Black is pioneering a new genre: narrative prehistorical nonfiction."—Steve Brusatte, professor and paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and The New York Times/The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

"This book is as vivid as a fairy-tale, brought to life by Black’s scientifically informed imagination. The Last Days of the Dinosaurs reveals the links between the deep past, and present-day ecosystems. Black guides you through Earth’s darkest hours—when an asteroid decimated the thriving dinosaurian world—and out the other side into a bright new evolutionary landscape. Facts are woven deftly into the narrative, parachuting you back in time to watch events unfold firsthand. This tale could be bleak, but Black turns our planet’s interstellar wound and subsequent transition into a story of hope and resilience. Mostly told from the animals’ perspectives, you share the experiences of a host of organisms including mammals, insects and plants. It’s Call of the Wild meets Armageddon."—Dr. Elsa Panciroli, paleontologist, Oxford University Museum of Natural History research fellow, and author of Beasts Before Us

"While the human endeavor of paleontology is infused into every page of this book, Black skillfully shifts it to the background and instead carries us straight into the forests, rivers, and plains of the Cretaceous and Paleogene world. Black's writing brings the last days of the dinosaurs and the critical first days, years, and millenia afterwards to vivid life, portraying a dynamic world full of living, breathing, creatures. I'd never before thought about what it must have felt like for a dinosaur to have lice, or for an early primate to be woken by birdsong, but now these images are seared into my memory, thanks to Black's skillful imagining of this lost world."—Phoebe A Cohen, paleontologist and Chair of Geosciences at Williams College

"During the most famous mass extinction, the dinosaurs died and the mammals survived. Riley Black brings every step of the crisis and the recovery to life in this novelization of the crisis. See it unfolding through the eyes of the victim dinosaurs and the survivor mammals. The lightness and pace of the writing is founded on thorough and careful analysis of the rich scientific evidence that lies behind the story."—Michael J. Benton, paleontologist, professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Bristol, and author of Dinosaurs Rediscovered

"Exquisitely written . . . as she expands her coverage through millions of years, Black’s skill as a writer and scientist and vivid imagination enable her to capture the dramatic transition from the Cretaceous period to the Cenozoic era which brought the flourishing of mammals and, eventually, humanity."—Booklist

"A real-life, natural history page-turning drama that is necessary reading for almost anyone interested in the history of life."—Library Journal (starred review)

"This is top-drawer science writing."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)