The Last Days of the Dinosaurs
Ratings13
Average rating3.5
A lovely and worthy addition to a growing number of excellent layperson's paleontology books released in recent years. The Last Days of the Dinosaurs presents a series of fictionalized scenarios that immerse the reader in various points on the K–Pg extinction timeline. For instance, we follow a Tyrannosaurus specimen before the asteroid impact, then see the world through the perspective of an Edmontosaurus as the bolide hits the Yucatán peninsula, and so on and so forth. The style is reminiscent of a nature documentary, although Black certainly has her own style and tone; the text would feel incongruous if read by, say, David Attenborough. I do find it curious that Black is criticized in Goodreads reviews for employing a speculative, nature documentary-style approach, while other (excellent) authors such as Thomas Halliday are lauded for the same. Black does an excellent job in the appendix of explaining which parts of the book are near-certain and which are more speculative. Notably, the speculative elements are all relatively conservative.
Black weaves a narrative depicting the K–Pg event as not only a time of great destruction, but as a time of growth and recovery. Mammals, non-dinosaurian reptiles, cephalopods, plants, and algae do not go neglected in this telling of the story. While some of Black's prose could have undergone just a bit more revision, make no mistake that this is a worthwhile book that any paleontology fan will enjoy.
I love Dinosaurs. And yet I've never really branched out from what I learned at school and Discovery channel about their lives and fates. This was a great read to learn more about them.
Easy read but not a lot of facts. Just speculation and this is how this animal felt. No scientific notes and lots of repetitiveness.
An awesome premise! But it's wasted on a strange form of fiction following various animals around. It felt lazy and repetitive.
3/5 stars
It was a little draining at times but overall, it was a good book. Mostly due to the fact that it can be overly descriptive, and you have to really pay attention to details to get information that you aren't already familiar with.
I can't think of many things scarier than the K-Pg extinction. It's always been something that gives me chills to think about. Our brains aren't made to grasp an apocalypse on that scale, and what's always struck me is the absolute freak nature of it: if anything had gone slightly different the last 65 million years would be completely unrecognisable.
This was a really interesting book in detailing before and after the asteroid hit. The first third of the book paints a picture of Hell Creek in the days preceding the asteroid impact, while the remaining chapters detail the aftermath (one hour after impact, one year after impact, and so forth into a million years). While the main focus is on Hell Creek, each chapter also contains a section on a different area of the planet, showing the aftermath on a global scale.
It's quite a unique perspective as most books on dinosaurs mark the end of the Cretaceous as the end of the dinosaurs, while that's decidedly not true. This book not only talks about the avian dinosaur survivors, but also the impact this event had on marine reptiles, insects, flora and fauna as well as, of course, mammals.