Riley Black

Riley Black

 

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications. 

The “Morphotype 1″ tunnel complex: points marked “a” represent tunnels, and points marked “b” signify vertical shafts.

Did Early Dinosaurs Burrow?

Were enigmatic, 230-million-year-old burrows created by dinosaurs?

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Beyond the Childhood Dinosaur Phase: Why Dinosaurs Should Matter to Everyone

Dinosaurs can help us unlock essential secrets about the history of life on Earth

A reconstruction of Irritator

I is for Irritator

The name of the long-snouted dinosaur Irritator hints at the troubled history surrounding the spinosaur's classification

Did Deinonychus and other “raptors” use their foot claws to restrain prey?

How Did Raptors Use Their Fearsome Toe Claws?

Claw Shapes: A Glimpse Into the Lifestyle of Raptors?

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What Prehistoric Reptile Do These Three-foot Claws Belong To?

Claws once thought to belong to a giant turtle turned out to be from one of the weirdest dinosaurs ever found

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Scientists Discover Oldest Known Dinosaur

A fragmentary skeleton pins the emergence of dinosaurs more than 10 million years earlier than previously thought

The articulated, almost-complete hand of Hagryphus giganteus.

H is for Hagryphus

An articulated hand found in southern Utah complicates the story of North America's feathery, beaked oviraptorosaurs

A cautious Camptosaurus approaches a resting Allosaurus. Even though the carnivore undoubtedly hunted the herbivore at times, the two weren’t constantly at war with each other.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dinosaurian Oddities

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Why Did Plant-Munching Theropods Get So Big?

Were these Late Cretaceous dinosaurs just the culmination of an evolutionary trend towards ever-larger body size or was something else at work?

Archaeopteryx had a wing that was different from that of modern birds, and, as seen here, might have been a glider more than a powered flyer.

Feathers Fuel Dinosaur Flight Debate

Was the early bird Archaeopteryx more of a glider than a flier?

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What is Genyodectes?

A set of partial jaws hold an important place in the history of South American paleontology, but what sort of dinosaur do they represent?

A restoration of Gigantspinosaurus.

G is for Gigantspinosaurus

Gigantspinosaurus had enormous shoulder spikes, but what were these ornaments used for?

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Stegosaurus Plate Debate

Stegosaurus is immediately recognizable for its prominent plates, but why did these structures actually evolve?

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What Kind of Dinosaur is Coming to Dinner?

Everyone knows that birds are dinosaurs, but what kind of dinosaur is your holiday turkey?

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What’s the Secret of Hadrosaur Skin?

Were extra-thick hides the secret to why paleontologists have found so much fossilized hadrosaur skin?

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Paleontologists Puzzle Over Possible Dinosaur Bones

When did dinosaurs start to become giants? Enigmatic bone fragments found in England complicate the debate

The giant sauropod Futalognkosaurus (at left) with some of its Cretaceous neighbors.

F is for Futalognkosaurus

Though not as famous as other huge dinosaurs, Futalognkosaurus is the most complete giant sauropod ever found

Only hindlimb elements of Alnashetri are known so far, but, based on the dinosaur’s relationships, the tiny theropod probably looked something like this Alvarezsaurus.

Cretaceous Legs Give Away New Dinosaur

Slender limb bones found in Argentina give away a new species of tiny dinosaur

A reconstruction of an Einiosaurus skull in a ceratopsid gallery at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

Lessons from Einiosaurus

New dinosaurs are always cause for excitement, but the real joy of paleontology is investigating dinosaur lives

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Peering Inside Dinosaur Skin

Dinosaur skin impressions aren't as rare as you might think, but how they form is a mystery

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