Riley Black on the end of the world and new beginnings
"If the asteroid had [...] hit in a different place, if it hit at a different speed or angle, or if any number of things had been slightly different, the extinction might have either been cancelled or dramatically altered and dinosaurs would still be running around.
It wasn't inevitable."
We were joined by science writer Riley Black, author of several bestsellers on paleontology including My Beloved Brontosaurus, Written in Stone, and Skeleton Keys. And if you've read literally anything anywhere about dinosaurs in the last decade, you’ve probably happened upon pieces by her in National Geographic, WIRED, Smithsonian Magazine, and Scientific American.
Her new book is The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World. It’s a richly narrated story that starts with the end of the world, and also depicts the beginnings of the world where our mammal forebears would learn to thrive—and it represents a new beginning for the author as well.
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
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 this 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.
Subscribe to Kobo in Conversation wherever you listen.