Riley Black

Winner of the 2023 AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books

Recipient of a 2024 Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education

Riley Black (she/they) has been a fossil fanatic since the time she was knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Her evolution into a science writer and amateur paleontologist was only natural. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, right in the center of dinosaur country, they chase tales of vanished lives from museum collections to remote badlands.

A prolific writer, Riley’s byline has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, Nature, Science, atmos, Popular Science, New Scientist, SIERRA, and many more. She’s also been a frequent guest on radio programs such as Science Friday and All Things Considered, and Riley was among the paleontologists highlighted in the NOVA documentaries “Alaskan Dinosaurs” and “Dinosaur Apocalypse.” In a dream come true, Riley was also the “resident paleontologist” and consultant to the Jurassic World franchise. Her expertise has also led Riley to speak at a variety of venues from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History to Dinosaur National Monument, most prominently delivering the 2022 keynote at tthe he annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting.

But Riley loves writing books most of all. Starting with Written in Stone in 2010, they’ve written more than 10 books for fossil fans of all ages. Her latest, the critically-acclaimed The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, won the 2023 AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Riley’s next book When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance, will be published on February 25th, 2025 by St. Martin’s Press. Presently, Riley’s working on The Shortest History of Dinosaurs for The Experiment.

But Riley does more than just write about fossils. Every summer she volunteers with an array of museums and universities to discover and excavate new specimens. These expeditions have taken her from the mountains of Alaska and the arid deserts of New Mexico to a Wyoming cave filled with Ice Age mammal bones. Visits to lost worlds fuel Riley's writing and her enthusiasm for life's amazing history.