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Riley Black

A person with tattoos wearing hiking gear and glasses.

Riley Black is the author of "The Last Days of the Dinosaurs," "Skeleton Keys" and other books about fossils. In addition to writing for publications like National Geographic and Smithsonian, she also joins museum field crews every summer to search for more fossils.

A person with tattoos wearing hiking gear and glasses.
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A detail photo of a lizard jaw placed against a white background. The fossil clearly shows the lizard's teeth, which look like tiny spokes along the jaw.
Despite the popularity of megafauna fossils, it is the tiniest of remains at the La Brea Tar Pits that hold the key to a clearer picture of our prehistoric past.
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For a state awash in fossils, California has relatively few dinosaurs. Why is that?
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Developers said their project wouldn't turn up any fossils. Were they ever wrong.
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The La Brea Tar Pits can tell us as much about the present as they can the past.
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