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Riley Black is an American paleontology and science writer. As “a widely-recognized expert on paleontology,” she is the author of natural history books such as When the Earth was Green, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Skeleton Keys, and My Beloved Brontosaurus.
Black’s books include When the Earth was Green (released in 2025), The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Skeleton Keys, and My Beloved Brontosaurus. Her engaging style of writing is consistently informed by science. Her work vividly provides the deep knowledge necessary—knowledge of geology, evolution, ecology, paleontology, and more—to understand and appreciate the history and future of life on our planet. She began her career as a science writer by launching the blog Laelaps, eventually branching out to write columns for a number of popular periodicals. Publishers Weekly praises her work on Last Days of Dinosaurs as “top-drawer science writing” that carefully explains to the reader the myriad ways in which scientists reach their conclusions.
Black was hired as "resident paleontologist" for the 2015 film Jurassic World. She is a regular guest on the radio show/podcast Science Friday. She starred in the 2022 documentaries Alaskan Dinosaurs and Dinosaur Apocalypse. She also gives lectures and talks on a regular basis, and was opening speaker at the 82nd annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Black previously wrote under their birth name. In 2019, she came out publicly as transgender and non-binary and started hormone replacement therapy. In the journal Nature she remarks that “palaeontology presents queer people with terrain as challenging as any fossil-flecked desert.” Yet at the same time, “… for Riley, the field is also a place of healing.”
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