When the Earth Was Green

Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance

Riley Black

$52.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

St Martin's Press
27 May 2025

Mathematics & Sciences; Palaeontology

Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root show us that dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and even humans would not exist without the evolutionary efforts of their leafy counterparts. It has been the constant growth of plants that have allowed so many of our favorite, fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenating the atmosphere, coaxing animals onto land, and forming the forests that shaped our ancestors' anatomy. It is impossible to understand our history without them. Or, our future.

Using the same scientifically-informed narrative technique that readers loved in the award-winning The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, in When the Earth Was Green, Riley Black brings readers back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides readers along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.

By: Riley Black
Imprint: St Martin's Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 208mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 300g
ISBN: 9781250288998
ISBN 10: 1250288991
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 27 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

RILEY BLACK (she/they) has been heralded as ""one of our premier gifted young science writers"" and is the award-winning author of Skeleton Keys, My Beloved Brontosaurus, Written in Stone, When Dinosaurs Ruled, and The Last Days of the Dinosaurs. A science correspondent for Smithsonian and regular contributor to publications like National Geographic and Slate, Riley is a widely-recognized expert on paleontology. She won the 2024 Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education.

Reviews for When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance

"Praise for When the Earth was Green: ""Riley Black shows us how the natural world has always been a splendid, entangled scrum of interactions and transactions...An essential, extraordinary story."" --Daniel Lewis, author of Twelve Trees, Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology, Huntington Library Praise for The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: Winner 2023 AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Writing ""Black blends the intricacies of science with masterful storytelling for a cracking, enchanting read."" --Newsweek ""This is top-drawer science writing."" --Publishers Weekly, starred review ""Exquisitely written."" --Booklist"