The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

De: Riley Black

Narrado por: Christina Delaine

In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks listeners 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.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

Surprise

Much more. deeper than I assume for the better. The title does not do the book justice.

It is a smart book

It is a smart book. I recommend it.

i liked having the narrative broken down to what happened following the PCE event in time segments: Preceeding, the moment of, first day, week, month, year, thousand years, million years and so on. This helps the reader to get an overview of the sequence of events.

I also liked the author sharing about her trans transition and using the example of that experience to say that the evolution of life is all about many different kinds of changes, I think her point is something along the lines that lots of those changes are painful and even deadly, but physical changes in individual organisms has always been a natural part of the evolution of life.

In fact, some place in the book the author writes something to the effect that "Diversity is more than the spice of life Diversity is the seeds that are necessarily sewn for the survival of a species.". I really liked the quote when I heard it. I am happy that yhe author was applying the idea to more than biology. I say well done to the author I thought the reading performance was top notch

This is the best science book I have ever listened to

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The author’s exceptional knowledge and the wonderful way she helped me learn about this catastrophic event 61 million years ago and how it affects of every way life on earth today was delightful. If you were going to read one science book, or listen to one science book this year, this is the one I recommend.

From 3 to 4 stars

I originally gave it 3 stars ("Pretty Good") but later changed it to 4 stars ("It's Great"). The reason is I watched the 2-hour Nova show 'Dinosaur Collapse' narrated by Sir David Attenborough with guest expert Riley Black which covers much the same material in the book (the release of the book and show coincide). The show has incredible CG that brought to life 66 million years ago on Hell Creek, Montana that felt like true time travel. The world was both familiar and different, but familiar enough to be believable. This then fed into and reinforced what I learned in the book. The two together are more than the sum of parts. Highly recommended to pair these into a multi-multi-media experience (text, audio, video).

Encouragement to open your mind

I have never been especially interested in or fascinated by dinosaurs, but this book provides a perspective of life on Earth that kept my attention. The narration is pleasant to listen to.