Riley Black
Riley Black
Riley Black
Vertebrate Paleontologist & Science Writer
Riley Black is a vertebrate paleontologist and science writer. She is passionate about sharing science with the public and writes about her experiences as a transgender woman in paleontology.
Riley began her science writing career as a Rutgers University undergraduate. She founded her own blog, Laelaps, and later wrote for Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and more. Riley has authored books for fossil enthusiasts of all ages, including Did You See That Dinosaur?, Skeleton Keys, My Beloved Brontosaurus, and Written in Stone.
Riley loves to spend time in the field, searching the Utah landscape for signs of prehistoric life. Her fossil discoveries are in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum of Utah, and the Burpee Museum of Natural History. Riley’s work in the field fuels her writing. She believes doing fieldwork is the best way to learn about paleontology.
In your own words, what is your work about?
“What really holds my work together is the idea that science is a process. Science is not just a body of facts or natural laws. What we find today will be tested against what we uncover tomorrow, and sometimes being wrong is a wonderful thing. I love the fact that the slow and scaly dinosaurs I grew up with are now brightly-colored, feathered creatures that seem a world apart from what we used to think. I believe fossils and dinosaurs provide powerful ways to discuss these ideas, how there is a natural reality we wish to understand with our primate brains. The questions, and why we’re asking them, are more fascinating to me than static answers.”
Riley with her dog Jet at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
Selected articles and essays by Riley Black
Black, R. 2018. The many ways women get left out of paleontology. Smithsonian Magazine, 7 June 2018. Link
Black, R. 2019. Queer voices in paleontology. Nature Careers Community. Link
Black, R. 2019. It’s time for the heroic male paleontologist trope to go extinct. Slate, 3 April 2019. Link
Black, R. 2020. How dinosaurs raised their young. Smithsonian Magazine, 24 June 2020. Link
Black, R. 2021. Shoniosaurus gets a makeover. Hakai Magazine, 17 February 2021. Link
Black, R. 2021. Daring to Dig. Carnegie Magazine, Spring 2021. Link
Selected books by Riley Black
Black, R. 2019. Skeleton keys: The secret life of bone. Riverhead Books. Excerpt available from Science Friday, 7 March 2019: Link
Black, R. 2020. Did you see that dinosaur? Rockridge Press.
Further reading
Time Scavengers: Riley Black, science writer & paleontologist. Interview. 2 December 2019. Link
Video & audio content
Fossil Friday chats: Sifting the fossil record with Riley Black. Video, 22 January 2021, via YouTube. Link
Science Friday: Utah’s fossil finds describe ancient world. Audio, 19 April 2013. Panel featuring Riley Black, Brooks Brit, and Randall Irmis. Link
Science Friday: Tweaking the dinosaur family tree. Audio, 31 March 2017. Link
Science Friday: The leg bone’s connected ot the ankle bone—but why? Audio, 8 March 2019. Link