Excerpt from The Last Extinction by Gerta Keller, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Weren't scientists supposed to be objective in their pursuit of the truth? If so, why did these men so passionately deny my research before they had even heard it? Why were they attempting to silence me? If they weren't interested in contending with the evidence I was presenting, what did they want? I would wrestle with these questions for years to come. All I knew in the moment, shaking onstage, was that I was telling the truth according to the facts. If my research was right, then an asteroid did not wipe out the dinosaurs.

My attempt to share my research at the Snowbird II conference was the beginning of what has become popularly known as "The Dinosaur Wars," a contentious debate over what triggered the fifth mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Era sixty-six million years ago: in other words, what really killed the dinosaurs. Our real-world monsters, dinosaurs have enthralled us for generations, and the question of what caused their demise is more relevant than ever as humankind confronts the paroxysms of an imperiled planet and the possibility that we may become the dinosaurs of the sixth extinction.

It's been called the nastiest feud in science. Passions in this field run deep. Most people don't think of science as a blood sport; this book may change that. The Last Extinction is the story of the forty-three years I've spent in the arena, fighting—and winning—against a toxic scientific establishment determined to bury me, all for my stubborn pursuit of the truth. Because I dared to challenge the popular asteroid impact theory, Smit's contingent launched an all-out war against me, doing their utmost to sabotage my work, destroy my reputation, and suppress the publications of my research. I've been told a lesser individual might have cut and run, but quitting was never an option for me. Smit picked a fight with the wrong woman.

To succeed, I've had to harness all my courage and resilience, forged over a lifetime of unconventional experiences. I've had to be a fighter, and I hope to show other women how they, too, can fight for their careers in science.

This is the story of how I and a small team of collaborators were finally able to share our exhilarating discoveries in the face of a unified group of establishment scientists who were unwilling to listen to reason. In it you will find betrayal and sabotage, as well as perseverance, vindication, and the power of truth, and woven through it all, the dinosaurs, impact, and volcanism. It is, from where I sit, the greatest scientific detective story of our time.

Excerpted from The Last Extinction by Gerta Keller. Copyright © 2025 by Gerta Keller. Excerpted by permission of Diversion Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.