The Last Days Of The Dinosaurs by Riley Black

 

Everyone has a picture in their mind of what the world looked like when the dinosaurs were the kings of the world.  Most of those pictures are based on movies such as Jurassic Park which may mix and match dinosaurs who didn't live in the same environment or at the same time.  Regardless an event happened that annihilated all the dinosaurs simultaneously.

Most people believe this was a meteorite.  Black shows evidence of one that hit that was seven miles wide which is hard to even imagine.  A blow of that sort created intense fires and then with all the particulates resulting from that, a blocking of the sunlight and dark days with frigid temperatures.  The dinosaurs could not hide nor find food and they died.  Some living creatures survived, such as those small mammals or amphibians that could shelter under water or in dens far below.  They would reinhabit the world along with plants that were again different from what existed before.  

Riley Black is a paleontologist who has written books and magazine articles about the dinosaurs and their demise.  Her work has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Nature and Sierra.  In this history, she explains what happened immediately after the meteorite hit, then what was the state of the world a year out, ten years, a hundred, a thousand.  In each of those chapters, she discusses what organisms were alive, how they survived and what they are.  She also states that some scientists believe that the widespread demise came from other sources but her belief is the meteorite was the culprit.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers interested in dinosaurs and how the world changed since then.