When the Earth Was Green
Riley Black
St. Martin’s Press, $29
Imagine being a paleontologist exploring Utah’s Jurassic-aged rocks. Imagine discovering the bones of a 20-meter-long, 20-ton herbivorous dinosaur. Then consider: How could any beast become so big? The answer, according to science writer and paleontologist Riley Black, lies in plants.
Black narrates the story of this Jurassic saurian in a chapter of her latest book, When the Earth Was Green. The imagined Apatosaurus lumbers through lush cycads, ferns and conifers, vacuuming plant matter into her digestive system of “enormous fermentation vats,” which allows her to extract maximal nutrients. The abundance of verdant foliage available for the adult Apatosaurus to inhale