Even during a time of horrible destruction and loss, life will find a way. 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, drawing from the latest science to track the sweeping disruptions that overtook Hell Creek and the rest of the planet. The dinosaurs will all but disappear as mammals rise to claim and reshape the planet, and you will be a witness to this fantastic transformation.

In the terrible mass extinction that will follow, more than half of known species will vanish seemingly overnight in both searing fire and constricting cold. As we watch, an asteroid some seven miles across is set to slam into the earth, leaving a geologic wound over fifty miles in diameter. Tyrannosaurus rex will be toppled from its throne, along with every other species of non-avian dinosaur no matter their size, diet or disposition. A Triceratops horridus ambles along the edge of the forest, enjoying this endless summer of the dinosaurs.īut in a matter of hours, everything here will be wiped away. It's a sunny afternoon in the Hell Creek ecosystem of North America 66 million years ago. Picture yourself in the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous had just ended with a bang, leaving nothing but fossils of giant land creatures to feed our understanding of the fragile giants that once roamed our planet.A fascinating exploration of the world's worst mass extinction and how it shaped all subsequent life on our planet. The energy becomes uncontainable, conducted through stone and water, as waves of force announce the cataclysm around the planet, bringing what could be described as a ‘nuclear winter’ that lasted three years. The heat and pressure of the violent impact cause the Earth’s crust to melt, but that’s only the moment of collision. The stone eventually crashes into the Yucatán Peninsula, its driving might opening a crater more than 160 kilometres in diameter. ‘The asteroid is pulled, changing from a subcircular lump into a long cylinder… And then, pop, it breaks.’ A few chunks smash into Jupiter, but one gigantic piece continues its voyage, heading towards the third planet from the Sun. Its flight through space is narrated like a cosmic thriller, albeit a tale founded on a wealth of solid research. It was within the immense field of frozen debris of the Oort Cloud, which surrounds our solar system, that the great asteroid broke loose, setting off on its journey towards Earth, dragged on by a strange invisible force that came to be known as gravity. The author transports the reader to the origins of this colossal stone, millions of miles away, far from the Sun’s rays. The definitive death blow struck with that giant rock from outer space, the calamitous event that Black relates in an engaging and dramatic narrative.

Last day of the dinosaurs book