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When the Earth Was Green
Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
Brief Description
Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root shows 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...
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When the Earth Was Green
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A gorgeously composed look at the longstanding relationship between prehistoric plants and life on Earth.
A gorgeously composed look at the longstanding relationship between prehistoric plants and life on Earth
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Description
Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root shows 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 favourite, 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.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781250905574
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 22 June 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Saint Martin's Griffin,U.S.
Illustration: Includes 30 black-and-white illustrations throughout
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 135.0mm
Height: 208.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 304
About the Author
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.
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