The evolutionary romance between plants and animals, played out over hundreds of millions of years. Primordial coal swamps crawling with giant insects, hungry dinosaurs munching on prehistoric horsetails, sabercats rolling in ancient catnip, and even our own early human ancestors clambering through the trees, When the Earth Was Green draws from the latest scientific discoveries to lushly reconstruct critical moments of connection that have shaped life on Earth.
“An essential, extraordinary story.” —Daniel Lewis, Huntington Library
Coming 02.25.2025
Pre-order the hardback, ebook, or audiobook
Winner of the 2023 AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books
"This is top-drawer science writing." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A real-life, natural history page-turning drama that is necessary reading for almost anyone interested in the history of life." —Library Journal, starred review
On a spring day 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into our planet and ended the Age of Dinosaurs. This is the story of what transpired from the day before impact to a million years afterwards, following the lives of dinosaurs, mammals, plants, sea creatures, and more caught in the middle of Earth’s fifth mass extinction.
Riley is also the author of Written in Stone, My Beloved Brontosaurus, National Geographic: When Dinosaurs Ruled, Prehistoric Predators, Skeleton Keys, Did You See That Dinosaur?, Deep Time, Dinosaurs: Profiles From a Lost World, and Deep Water.