The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

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Riley Black

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

Riley Black

$40.95

Paperback

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English

St Martin's Press
23 October 2023

Mathematics & Sciences; Evolution; Palaeontology; Dinosaurs & the prehistoric world

"Winner of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books!

""This is top-drawer science writing."" --Publishers Weekly, starred review

In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs,

Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Life's losses were sharp and deeply-felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now.

Picture yourself in the Cretaceous period. It's a sunny afternoon in the Hell Creek of ancient Montana 66 million years ago. A Triceratops horridus ambles along the edge of the forest. In a matter of hours, everything here will be wiped away. Lush verdure will be replaced with fire. Tyrannosaurus rex will be toppled from their throne, along with every other species of non-avian dinosaur no matter their size, diet, or disposition. They just don't know it yet.

The cause of this disaster was identified decades ago. An asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that followed, more than half of known species vanished seemingly overnight. But this worst single day in the history of life on Earth was as critical for us as it was for the dinosaurs, as it allowed for evolutionary opportunities that were closed for the previous 100 million years.

""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, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs"

By: Riley Black
Imprint: St Martin's Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 208mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 227g
ISBN: 9781250894861
ISBN 10: 1250894867
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 23 October 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

RILEY BLACK has been heralded as one of our premier gifted young science writers and is the critically-acclaimed author of Skeleton Keys, My Beloved Brontosaurus, Written in Stone, and When Dinosaurs Ruled. An online columnist for Scientific American, Riley has become a widely-recognized expert on paleontology and has appeared on programs such as Science Friday, HuffingtonPost Live, and All Things Considered. Riley has also written on nerdy pop culture.