Surviving Climate & Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change & Resilience

by Evan Jevnikar

What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Survival

What if dinosaurs could help us prepare for the future? In Surviving Climate and Chaos , paleontologist and science communicator Evan Jevnikar reveals how the prehistoric past holds critical lessons for understanding modern climate change, extinction, and survival.

Dinosaurs weren't just ancient curiosities—they were vital parts of ancient ecosystems whose rise and fall mirrors many of the patterns scientists see in today's rapidly changing world. With a blend of cutting-edge science, fascinating fossil discoveries, and philosophical reflection, Jevnikar explores how the extinction of these giants can help us confront humanity's future.

From mass extinctions and ecosystem collapse to resilience and adaptation, this book makes the case that dinosaurs still have much to teach us. Whether you're a lifelong dino fan, a science reader, or someone curious about how Earth's past predicts its future, Surviving Climate and Chaos is an essential and captivating read.

Inside, you'll

How ancient ecosystems reveal patterns in today's climate changeWhat dinosaur fossils teach us about survival and extinctionHow to apply lessons from prehistory to modern environmental challengesIf you liked The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs , Locked in Time , or Weird Universe , you'll love Surviving Climate and Chaos .

Genres: Palaeontology

213 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2025

Reviews

[Grace 🦕🦖 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed the way I view climate change

As a lover of dinosaurs and all things natural history, I was well aware of the mass extinctions and drastic climate changes our planet has seen throughout its history before ever picking up Surviving Climate & Chaos. What I wasn’t aware of was just how relevant and applicable these concepts are to the world today. This book truly enlightened me.

Jevnikar expertly takes complex scientific concepts and explains them in a way that is so easy to grasp that it could make literally anyone, regardless of their level of background knowledge, feel like a dinosaur-climate change-mass extinction guru. Not only that, but it is enthralling to the point that it makes doing anything else besides reading it quite the challenge (I read this book and am writing this review as I have finals approaching, and I had to force myself to prioritize studying over reading).

Overall, Surviving Climate & Chaos is an absolutely fascinating book that is the perfect read for any science lover of any kind. Also, it equipped me with several new arguments for the next time someone tries to tell me that climate change “isn’t real” or “isn’t that big of a deal,” so that’s always a plus.

Anyways 10/10 book, could not recommend it any more :)

[lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life finds a way!

I know it was published recently, but this book is very timely and apt for our world right now. Jevnikar's way of relating the reign of the dinosaurs back to the climate crisis that humans are facing was well done and I found the conclusion to be particularly evocative. I loved that he identified the problems with anthropogenic climate change and provided solutions while still remaining (optimistic? hopeful? idk) about the situation.

Not only that, but the chronology of the book, the maps of Pangea, and the depictions of dinosaurs throughout were helpful visualizations. This is definitely a book that can be enjoyed by anyone and is also a great segue into learning more about dinosaurs or climate change.

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surviving Climate & Chaos uses the history of dinosaurs, mass extinctions, and ancient climate shifts to explain what Earth’s past can teach us about our warming future. Moving chronologically from the Permian extinction through the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the book argues that climate has always shaped evolution, survival, extinction, and ecological dominance. By combining paleontology, atmospheric science, and evolutionary biology, it shows how traits like efficient lungs, flexible diets, heat tolerance, and ecological adaptability determined which species survived catastrophic environmental change. Ultimately, the book reframes dinosaurs not as isolated curiosities of the past, but as case studies in resilience, collapse, and adaptation that offer urgent lessons for humanity during modern climate change.

Summaries

Introduction: Answers to the Future Found in the Past

The introduction establishes the book’s central premise: deep-time paleontology provides one of the best frameworks for understanding climate change because dinosaurs lived through enormous environmental transformations over hundreds of millions of years. Dinosaurs survived shifting temperatures, changing atmospheric chemistry, supercontinent breakups, and ecological collapse across every continent on Earth. The author argues that paleontology is fundamentally predictive science: by studying how ecosystems responded to ancient warming events, we can better understand the likely consequences of modern global warming. The introduction also emphasizes that adaptability—not permanence—is the defining feature of life.

“The whole point of science [is] using past experiences and observations to be able to predict and better understand the future.”

## Chapter 1: End Permian and Early Triassic — The End of the World

This chapter examines the Permian mass extinction, the most catastrophic extinction event in Earth’s history, and explains how volcanic eruptions triggered massive carbon dioxide release, runaway warming, oxygen depletion, and ecological collapse. The chapter carefully connects ancient atmospheric chemistry to modern fossil fuel emissions, showing how burning carbon-rich material fundamentally reshapes climate systems. Amid this devastation, archosaurs survived because of physiological advantages including highly efficient unidirectional lungs, upright posture, and water-conserving uric acid excretion. These adaptations allowed them to endure low oxygen and extreme heat better than many competing species. The chapter presents extinction not as random catastrophe but as a filter favoring flexibility, respiratory efficiency, and environmental resilience.

## Chapter 2: Late Triassic — Journey through the Desert

This chapter explores how renewed volcanism intensified global warming, destabilized rainfall cycles, and transformed the Triassic into a world of extreme droughts punctuated by catastrophic monsoons. Dinosaurs initially remained small and ecologically flexible, which became an advantage during environmental instability. The chapter also introduces evidence that dinosaurs were warm-blooded endotherms, supported by rapid bone growth and early feather evolution. Their adaptability, fast metabolism, and ability to exploit unstable ecosystems helped them survive while more specialized competitors disappeared. The broader lesson is that ecological flexibility often matters more than dominance during periods of rapid climate change.

## Chapter 3: Early Jurassic — Manifest Destiny

This chapter describes the environmental stability and oxygen-rich atmosphere that allowed dinosaurs to diversify and dominate ecosystems globally. Efficient respiratory systems that once merely aided survival now enabled massive body size, high activity levels, and evolutionary expansion. The chapter also contrasts dinosaurs with early mammals, which remained small burrowing insectivores throughout most of the Mesozoic. Alongside dinosaur evolution, the author discusses broader climate history, emphasizing that Earth’s “normal” climate state has historically been much warmer than today. The chapter repeatedly links ancient climate niches to modern human vulnerability, arguing that humans are evolutionarily optimized for temperate environments that climate change increasingly threatens.

## Chapter 4: Mid to Late Jurassic — Empires Arise

This chapter examines how the breakup of Pangaea reshaped ocean circulation, humidity, and regional climates, creating more stable and ecologically diverse environments across the globe. Rather than a single uniform climate, localized ecosystems emerged as continents drifted apart. The chapter connects these ancient transformations to modern climate concerns, especially rising sea levels and the destruction of wetlands that act as natural carbon sinks. It also highlights contemporary ecological restoration projects, such as desert “terraforming” efforts in Tanzania and Kenya, as examples of how relatively simple interventions can help rebuild carbon-absorbing ecosystems. The chapter balances ancient history with cautious optimism about environmental recovery.

## Chapter 5: Early Cretaceous — Reflections in the Past

This chapter focuses on the rise of flowering plants and how climate change transformed plant anatomy, ecosystems, and food webs. As environments became hotter and drier, plants evolved xeromorphic traits such as smaller leaves and slower growth to conserve water. These changes cascaded upward through ecosystems, reshaping herbivore diets and predator evolution. The author repeatedly draws parallels between Early Cretaceous warming and modern anthropogenic climate change, emphasizing that warming alters life indirectly through foundational ecological systems like vegetation. Climate affects plants first, and those changes ripple through the entire biosphere.

## Chapter 6: Late Cretaceous — Pax Dinosauria

This chapter examines the peak of dinosaur dominance during the Late Cretaceous while also exploring the environmental pressures shaping adaptation. Dinosaurs evolved sophisticated cooling systems, including enlarged nasal cavities, air sacs, porous bones, and feathers that regulated body temperature in extreme climates. The chapter also traces the rise of tyrannosaurs into apex predators and introduces early modern birds such as Asteriornis and Vegavis, whose generalist lifestyles and versatile metabolisms likely contributed to their survival after the asteroid impact. Adaptability once again emerges as the defining trait of long-term survival.

## Conclusion: Altered Place

The conclusion connects ancient extinction events directly to the modern climate crisis, arguing that humanity now faces many of the same environmental pressures that shaped prehistoric mass extinctions: rising carbon dioxide, warming oceans, expanding deserts, oxygen depletion, and ecosystem instability. The author warns that humans possess respiratory systems poorly adapted to high-carbon atmospheres and that climate change is fundamentally a public health crisis as much as an ecological one. Yet the conclusion also emphasizes solutions, particularly reforestation, wetland conservation, and carefully managed ocean carbon sinks. The book ultimately argues that survival depends on adaptation, ecological restoration, and abandoning unsustainable fossil fuel dependence.

The author writes using simple language very well. He provides facts, then circles back to them. He builds out from facts into narrative about climate both in the past and the present.


QUOTES

Surviving Climate & Chaos

Introduction: Answers to the Future Found in the Past

“Looking at how modern animals adapt to changing temperatures in history might help, but not enough time has passed. There are 180 million years between the first dinosaurs ever to exist and their extinction in the Cretaceous Period, sixty-six million years ago. Dinosaurs existed for longer than they have been extinct. Another reason is that dinosaurs lived on every single continent: You can find dinosaur fossils from the North Pole to equatorial South America, and down to the South Pole. From the wester hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere, they literally lived everywhere. As such, they carved out a living in every type of environment you could think of. Overall, they were a very hardy group of animals. While some dinosaurs would go extinct as their environments changed, others survived and adapted to that change.”

End Permian

“If you hold your breath, you probably can only do it for a minute or so before you have to breathe out Carbon dioxide can't be absorbed, meaning we need to get it out of our lungs to make space for oxygen. It's more important for us to
"elease the carbon dioxide in our lungs than extract every bit of oxygen. Therefore, we breathe out some oxygen that hasn't been used yet. Our current atmosphere has plenty filof oxygen, so we don't have to worry about our technically wasteful breathing; there's plenty of oxygen to go around, and not so much carbon dioxide.”

“However, it was so novel that no microorganisms had yet evolved to break down wood. Thus, these first trees did not decompose. Instead of breaking down into soil, whole swaths of land filled with dead but intact trees were buried. Eventually, bacteria and other organisms evolved to break down wood. Even so, all of those trees that never decomposed were buried and compacted over millions of years. The carbon that had been absorbed by these trees got condensed to form coal-the same type of coal we use today.
-These global forests had produced millions of square miles of coal just underneath the surface during the Permian. When this sea of lava melted into these coal deposits, it scorched millions of tons of coal, producing an enormous amount of. carbon dioxide, similar in effect to humans burning fossil fuels today.”

“The unique structure of carbon dioxide allows it to absorb a lot of energy from infrared radiation. As a result, carbon dioxide can release that extra stored energy, in the form of heat, back into the atmosphere. In an atmosphere with less carbon dioxide, infrared rays mostly pass through the atmosphere, warm the surface, and then head back our through the atmosphere. However, an atmosphere with more carbon dioxide absorbs the heat from infrared radiation. Carbon dioxide then reemits the heat in all directions; this heat is sent back to the surface of the Earth, where it warms the surface of the planet again.”

“Why did the archosaurs survive when nearly all other animals died off Remember, the archosaurs had hyper-efficient lungs that were excellent at sucking up oxygen from the air. Now, with carbon dioxide dominating the composition of air, there was relatively little oxygen to breathe in. For the "wasteful" breathers, like the therapsids, this was a death sentence, as they struggled to simply breathe.”

“Seed ferns and conifers slowly rebounded and began to spread. Over the course of millions of years, a continent full of these plants began to slowly absorb the astronomical amount of carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen, thus cooling the planet slightly. Based on the lack of coal from this time period, it seems that conifers and seed ferns weren't able to attain modern tree sizes; they barely managed to get bigger than the size of large shrubs. The intense heat and arid conditions prevented them from getting bigger. Thus, carbon dioxide conversion was limited.”

Triassic

“The conifers, cycads, and seed ferns that survived the end-Permian extinction were much more drought-tolerant plants. Even so, they maintained a small size to conserve energy, water, and other resources. Now the high humidity and abundance of water allowed them to thrive. These plants then began to grow tremendously large; many of them became trees.”

“Most dinosaurs may have survived simply because they were in the right place at the right time.”

Ch3: Early Jurassic: Manifesst Destiny

“A coolhouse climate with global temperatures that are roughly 18-22 °C (64-4-71.6 °F), similar to our modern climate, only encompasses 18% of the past five hundred million years. Ice ages encompass 13%, even more rare. That leaves the vast majority of ancient history hotter than today.”

“Research suggests that it goes back to how the dinosaurs breathed. Remember, dinosaurs had unidirectional lungs with multiple air sacs along the pathway of their lungs; this unique respiratory system made them, and all archosaurs, extremely efficient breathers. This came in handy at the end of the Permian, and throughout the entire Triassic, because oxygen was in very limited supply. Hence the ancestors of mammals, like therapsids, dicynodonts, and cynodonts, either went extinct or became much less diverse during this time. As oxygen within the atmosphere began to increase, the efficient lungs of dinosaurs were already primed to take advantage of the new abundance of oxygen. Having more oxygen held in the body due to air sacs meant that dinosaurs could provide more energy to their muscles. With more energy, muscles could get bigger and stronger. They could support a more active lifestyle, or bigger bodies. Not only did the abundance of plant life and stable climate benefit the dinosaurs, but the extra oxygen took their highly efficient bodies to the next level. It was this perfect storm of environmental and climate characteristics that helped them become exceedingly successful as time went on.”

“To know what the best climate is for human survival, we can look at where humans prefer to live. Even though humans occupy almost every corner of the planet, we're surprisingly picky in where we live. Most of humanity is concentrated in temperate areas that are on average 11-15 °C (51-59 °F). The eastern half of the US, Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, eastern and coastal China, Japan, South Africa, and central Argentina: These places fit into a highly specific climatic niche of humans. Not only are temperate environments where we see the highest density in human populations overall, it's also where we see the highest concentration of crops and livestock.
It's even where we see the highest density of global GDP. This isn't just true for today, or the past couple decades, or even the past few hundred years. For over six thousand years (which is about as far back as we can reliably tell, humans have lived in
temperate environments.”

Ch6: Early Cretaceous: Reflections in the Past

“On top of that, a new food source burst onto the scene that has been missing for most of our story. The Cretaceous was a special time for dinosaurs, as it saw the origin of angiosperms: flowering and fruiting plants.”

“Plant life here began to develop xeromorphic adaptations: changes to their structure that helped them conserve water and energy in a heat- and water-stressed environment. Trees here had thin and small leaves to retain precious water; the larger leaves are, the more surface area they have, which allows more evaporation. The trees here also had highly irregular growth. During drought seasons, they would keep their growth to a minimum to focus their energy simply on survival. The drier conditions prompted dinosaurs to adapt to the changes as well.”

“Climate change affects animals at a fundamental level by affecting the plants they eat. Plants are the foundation of the food web, and their lifestyle trickles down and affects the animals that feed on them, which trickles down and affects the predators that eat those herbivores. As today's environments become increasingly warmer and more arid, plants will respond by becoming more xeromorphic. Leaves will become thinner and more compacted to retain moisture. The sizes of plants will also decrease in order to save resources. While we have a multitude of prehistoric examples to show this, modern scientists are able to observe this right now.”

“The climatic changes would not only have been familiar to dinosaurs, but to humans as well. During the Aptian-Albian cold snap, the average global temperature was roughly 19 °C (66.2 °F).
This isn't much higher than today's global average temperatures.
However, in the Albian, temperatures began to slowly increase by roughly 2 °C every million years. Many paleontologists have noticed how eerily similar this temperature increase at the end of the Early Cretaceous is to our current global warming situation.
Thus, the events of the Late Cretaceous may be a glimpse into what the future of humanity might look like as global warming affects our planet.”

Ch6: Late Cretaceous: Pax Dinosauria

“It seems clear that the cooling that reversed the Middle Cretaceous global warming was due to the rebound of carbon sinks; phytoplankton returned to a healthy abundance and plants, especially angiosperms, blossomed. Additionally, with the separation of the continents facilitating the circulation of cooling currents across the globe, the planet cooled much faster than when all land was conglomerated in Pangea. This is the optimistic news of our situation: The composition of the continents and the global distribution of plants has never made it easier to cool the planet and rebound from global warming.”

Conclusion: Altered Place

“As deserts expand, our land surfaces will become less able to absorb the precipitation and flooding will become more common and more extreme.
The effects aren't limited to land; our oceans and coasts are on track to change severely. Warmer oceans mean dissolved oxygen is expected to exit the ocean and create widespread anoxia. The increasing storms erode more of the surface, which sends more nitrate-based nutrients and compounds into the ocean for plankton to take in. Like in the Early Cretaceous, algal blooms are likely to form and exacerbate ocean anoxia.
Just like the Early Cretaceous, our glaciers are likely to melt quickly, especially those at the poles. This aretic amplification means that the poles are significantly more vulnerable to chmate change than many other regions on Earth. It also means this glacier melt is a significant contributor to global warming, given that an expanding ocean absorbs more heat.”

“As with every mass extinction, the bigger and more specialized an animal is, the more likely it is to go extinct.”

“Only life that is already primed to live in hot and arid conditions will make it through this period of global warming. Xeromorphic plants with thinner and coarser leaves will dot the landscape.
Animals that are ectothermic, poikilothermic, or both will become more prevalent, as strictly warm-blooded animals overheat. Our whole ecosystems and how they interact will radically change.”

“We are meant to live in temperate forests and always have. As temperate forests migrate toward the poles or disappear altogether, crops and livestock will be harder to grow.”

“What's more, our lungs are like those of the therapsids, not of the archosaurs. Our technically wasteful breathing is not adaptive to an atmosphere that is growing in carbon dioxide.
We may not suffocate to death, but these higher carbon dioxide levels will significantly impact our health. Studies have shown that living at one thousand parts per million of carbon dioxide affects our brains' decision-making abilities and how well we can concentrate. Considering that we are on track to hit 1,284 parts per million by 3025, this is extremely concerning. At 2,500 parts per million-the low estimate for the mid-Cretaceous thermal maximum-cognition plummets as people struggle to accomplish simple tasks. Global warming and increasing carbon emissions are not just a climate crisis, an environmental crisis, or an economic crisis; it is very much a human and public health crisis.”

[Ari Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, quick read on why you should care about climate change and how to approach viewing/interpreting these changes from a paleontologist’s perspective.

The author conveys the information in a very easy to understand way, no overwhelming info dumping and encourages further reading - which I LOVE!!

It’s approachable and really just an excellent introduction to the topic of climate change.
I feel like this has been the perfect launching pad for my curiosity fueled research. You’ll never see this but thank you Evan!

[Alley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of climate (ancient and present), as well as of various dinosaurs. As someone who is super into paleontology & has read multiple books about dinosaurs, though, I do kinda feel like I knew most of this already - lol. I recommend, though!