#riley black

[korybing]

When the Earth Was Green by Riley Black was released February 2025 and I did 30 illustrations for it! Riley is so fun to work with and she had me draw so many fun and interesting things!

Edit: looks like this post was flagged for mature content because of the ardipithecus mammaries, lol

[emmalerae]

I was commissioned by author Riley Black to create a poster and sticker for her book; Tyrant Lizard Queen: The Love, Life, and Terror of Earth’s Greatest Carnivore.

In the stylings of VHS horror covers of the 80's the art depicts Snaggletooth stalking through the Cretaceous forest as night settles, in search of an evening meal.

Print and Poster: https://www.emmalerae.com/store/p88/%22Tyrant_Lizard_Queen%22_Print_%26_Poster.html

"Tyrant Lizard Queen" Print & Poster

Prints- 11" x 17" and printed matte with archival ink on archival paper and typically shipped flat, bagged, and boarded. Can be signed by me

Sticker: https://www.emmalerae.com/store/p90/%22Tyrant_Lizard_Queen_%28%26_baby%29%22_Sticker.html

"Tyrant Lizard Queen (& baby)" Sticker

I was commissioned by author Riley Black to create a sticker for her book Tyrant Lizard Queen: The Love, Life, and Terror of Earth’s Greates

[writingfanficsfan]

‘That’s the goal of paleontology, after all—to start with the offerings of death and work back toward life.

The last days of the dinosaurs-Riley Black

[joanjournal]

Reviews: Riley Black - When the Earth was Green

I've been fond of Riley Black's writing for many years now, ever since I picked up a copy of My Beloved Brontosaurus as I was starting college. I appreciate the sense of wonder she brings into her paleo-literature, especially when she is explaining scientific research or breaking down complex subjects. Not only that, her ability to remain as up-to-date as possible with the latest research and discourse had made her a go-to source of information for me for years.

So I was absolutely delighted when I heard that she was going to tackle plant evolution in her new book When the Earth was Green! Not long after its release I quickly snagged a copy.

When it comes to understanding plant life, one of the things you have to recognize is that they do not exist in a vacuum. They are intimately woven with all the other organisms in their environment, and that environment itself is more-or-less underpinned by the plants that live there. Right away Black makes this point known, and emphasizes that plants are living things. She then continues by investigating the curiosities of deep time in relation to plants, and the kinds of things people often neglect to think about when it comes to visualizing past ecosystems.

From then on the book devotes most of its pages to different snapshots of the Earth's past from 1.2 billion years ago onwards, telling the story of plant evolution in small narrative episodes. Each chapter highlights a key change or lineage in the story of plants and its relation to the story of animal evolution.

To be completely honest, I had struggled with this format during the first half of the book. I do not know what on earth was going on with my head, but I seem to have had a different vision for what this book would be like vs. what Black actually wrote. Like I wanted something more... academic and more nitty-gritty with details? But I took some time and sat with my thoughts, and then went back to her previous book The Last Days of the Dinosaurs (which I adored and read in less than a week). This style of "narrative nonfiction" - to quote Goodreads - was how Black formatted this last book, so what was my problem here? I had stopped following the Late Cretaceous chapter and decided to continue on with a more open mind. Sure enough, as I read through the Cenozoic chapters, I gained much more appreciate and love for the book.

I absolutely loved the Cenozoic chapters and Black's choices of subject material. I had relearned and felt sheer fascination with our understandings of, say, how modern tropical rainforests became a post-Mesozoic phenomena or how autumn foliage ensured the survival of microfauna in northern latitudes. I wonder if this actually means I'm more of a Cenozoic-slut than the other geologic eras, but can't say that's a fair assessment of my paleontological interests. Living in a world with rainforests and deciduous trees means that I'm curious about how these environments and ecological relations developed, so perhaps Black was tapping into my love of big history connections?

Anywho, I'm very glad I followed the book through to the end, because I was rewarded with some beautiful reflections to ponder about. True to her style, Black flips our stereotypes of paleontology on their head, and she ends the book giving some praise to the fact that the fossil record is so patchy and full of gaps. It's these gaps that have helped scientists easily study relations between taxa and understand the evolution of life, because otherwise the seemless blending of species and environments would literally break the foundations of biology and force us to rethink how we look at nature. Which... I mean, that sounds awesome and vibes with my anarchist thinking, but I do agree that we probably wouldn't have developed our understanding of big concepts in evolution and deep time as clearly as we have had things turned out that way. So I definitely appreciate those gaps and have shifted how I think about them.

Before I end this review, I just want to say that Riley Black's fusion of her gender-journey with her love of Earth's prehistory spoke to me in ways that I haven't truly recovered from. Her writing makes me want to be louder and prouder and more comfortable in my own skin than I've ever been.

Um... I don't really care about giving rankings or ratings on this blog, as I feel many people will only look at stars or numbers and not care about nuance. I'll say that, in the end, I ended up absolutely enjoying When the Earth was Green and encourage anyone with an interest in deep time to pick it up and share it with their friends. It's beautifully written and is sure to spark your imagination in some way or another. You'll certainly never look at plants the same way again...

Buy it here! And check out Riley Black's page here!

[authorkarajorgensen]

10 Books to Add to your TBR 2025 Edition Pt. 1

In the past, I would make a best of list for books I read, but I hate holding off on talking about my favorite reads. Instead, I plan to make a few of these posts throughout the year as I find books I loved. The links below are affiliate links, so I get a tiny kick back if you purchase through that link. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire- this is the tenth book in the Wayward…

10 Books to Add to your TBR 2025 Edition Pt. 1

[cozycononline]

We have been uploading more panels from 2024's Dinosaur themed convention event, including the panel "How to Survive an Extinction" by Riley Black / restingdinoface.bsky.social at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDWhrmZArk

[imperatorcaesaraugustus]

A Brief Book Review of: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black

i recently read The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, a nonfiction book about the period of time immediately after the K-Pg extinction event written by Riley Black

i have a whole shelf full of books that i plan on reading, when i get to it, a really quite sizeable queue. this book was not on that shelf. i did not have plans to read this book until the moment i started reading it. i had gone to the library to get some writing done and, coming upon a bit of a block, started perusing the shelves in an attempt to clear my head. i saw this book, sat down, and read the entire thing in that one sitting

this book goes into detail about the fallout of the K-Pg extinction event, famous for killing off the non-avian dinosaurs. chapters are organized by time (one minute after impact, one week after impact, one million years after impact, etc.) and tell a vivid narrative about which species survived and how they survived, as well as which ones did not and why they did not. the book focuses on Hell Creek, being an environment well understood both immediately before and immediately after the extinction, but takes time to explore other areas as well. although based solidly on scientific evidence, this book tells a compelling and comprehensible story

overall, if you have any interest in paleontology, i highly recommend this book

[eutrochiumfistulosum]

Lowkey my favorite of Kory Bing's illustrations from Riley Black's "The Last Days of the Dinosaurs"