The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

Starred review from January 24, 2022
“The worst single day in the history of life on Earth” came 66 million years ago when a space rock slammed into Earth and subsequently wiped out about 75% of living species, according to journalist Black (Skeleton Keys) in this impressive account. Black begins by exploring how creatures living in the “Hell Creek Formation beds of central Montana and the Dakotas” experienced that day, imagining the zone from the time of the impact, and the first day (the sun is “blocked by the choking smoke”), month (the area is “a skeleton of what it once was), year (forests are “skeletal), and century following. Black avoids the pitfall of overdramatizing, instead bringing the global disaster to life in elegant prose, imagining, for example, the actions of a young male Edmontosaurus, an 18-foot-long herbivore, and a 25-foot-long armored Ankylosaurus as the world around them changes. She effectively demonstrates the complexity and interdependence of various ecosystems, and the appendix is an extra treat—in it, Black explains how scientists know as much as they do about the behavior and physiology of species alive millions of years ago, and identifies where she used literary license to set a scene. This is top-drawer science writing.

Starred review from March 1, 2022

Black (Written in Stone) combines science information with beautiful prose, providing snapshots of various dinosaurs just before, during, and after the asteroid impact. That asteroid was a seven-mile-wide rock from space that was pulled into Earth's solar system by the Sun. The impact of this rock ends the reign of dinosaurs and begins a new age of mammals. The book focuses on the fossils of Hell Creek, Montana, but Black's history also travels to Asia and deep beneath the ocean. Readers encounter plant-eating Edmontosaurus and its nemesis Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as armor-plated Ankylosaurus. All of these creatures are destroyed by the cosmic catastrophe Black brings to life with vivid detail. She describes the immediate reverberations of the impact, as well as providing snapshots of life the day after, a month later, one year later, one thousand years later, and onwards. She also explains how certain animals, like burrowing mammals, avian dinosaurs, and insects survived. Like Steve Brusatte's Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Black offers a compelling look at the final days of dinosaurs and the aftereffects of the asteroid impact. VERDICT A real-life, natural history page-turning drama that is necessary reading for almost anyone interested in the history of life.--Jeffrey Meyer

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2022
Black blends creativity with detailed research, placing readers center stage 66 million years ago, during the sudden, apocalyptic fifth extinction. With Hell Creek in ancient Montana as the setting, Black describes the flora and fauna of the time, including dinosaurs, among them the imposing Tyrannosaurus Rex. In her exquisitely written coverage of the life cycles and habits of saurian and other life forms, Black makes it clear that inexorable doom will soon extinguish most plant and animal species on earth. Readers are witness to the seven-mile-wide, cataclysmic asteroid that journeyed from depths of our solar system to pulverize earth's crust, creating the Chicxulub crater in the Yucat�n Peninsula. Black recounts the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, from the initial intense heat and fire to the darkness and winter that followed, and tells stories of survivors' evolution and adaptation. 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.

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