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. 

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Tracking Dinosaurs With Ray Stanford

Amateur paleontologist Ray Stanford has a great talent for tracking Maryland's Cretaceous dinosaurs

The reconstructed skull of Eotriceratops. The actual specimen is not complete, but, based on the recovered elements and the dinosaur’s relationships, we know the dinosaur would have looked similar to Triceratops.

E is for Eotriceratops

The recently discovered Eotriceratops might yield important clues about how the famous Triceratops evolved

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Paleontologists Welcome Xenoceratops to the Ceratopsian Family Tree

Canadian researchers found the horned dinosaur hiding in storage

Crocodylians are the last living representatives of the crocodylomorpha, an even bigger group that originated over 205 million years ago.

The Top 10 Greatest Survivors of Evolution

Travel back millions of years in your time machine and you’d find some of these species thriving and looking much as they do today

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Piecing Together Eolambia

Paleontologists uncover a new look for one of Cretaceous Utah's most common dinosaurs, Eolambia

Mamenchisaurus, one of the longest-necked dinosaurs of all time, perfectly represents the bizarre nature of sauropods.

Did Sauropods Have Built-In Swamp Coolers?

Paleobiologists are still trying to figure out how large sauropods prevented themselves from overheating

The upper and lower jaws of Duriavenator, illustrated when they were thought to belong to Megalosaurus, in A History of British Fossil Reptiles Vol. II.

Finding Duriavenator

Jaws once thought to be from Megalosaurus belong instead to this little-known species

The dinosaur William Parks described as Dyoplosaurus, showing where the bones would have fit on the actual animal.

D is for Dyoplosaurus

A hidden ankylosaur species changes how paleontologists understand the evolution of North America's Late Cretaceous dinosaurs

In this restoration by Emiliano Troco, a Sauroniops feeds on a juvenile Spinosaurus. (And yes, all the dinosaurs in this image are fluffy.)

New Dinosaur Discovered – Named After the Demonic Sauron from Lord of the Rings

A bizarre skull fragment hints at a new species of giant predatory dinosaur from Morocco

Many Allosaurus bones have been found with fractures and other pathologies, but were any of these injuries caused by falls?

Following Dinosaur Falls

Dinosaurs undoubtedly slipped and fell. But did they leave any evidence of their mishaps in the fossil record?

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What Scared Dinosaurs? The Terror Croc

Deinosuchus, an enormous alliagtoroid, undoubtedly gave dinosaurs much to fear

Fossil teeth, found by Ferdinand Hayden in Montana, which Joseph Leidy attributed to the dinosaur “Trachodon.”

Finding Hayden’s Dinosaurs

Thanks to some historical detectivework, a pair of researchers has relocated one of the earliest recognized dinosaur sites in the American west

A mount of Cetiosaurus at the New Walk Museum in Leicester. While the neck of this sauropod is almost completely known, no skull has ever been described.

C is for Cetiosaurus

Sauropods are iconic dinosaurs, but the first of their kind ever found was initially thought to be a huge crocodile

Part of a multi-step sequence by which Tyrannosaurus could have beheaded Triceratops, based on research by Fowler et al.

Did Tyrannosaurus Ever Battle Triceratops?

We love to imagine Tyrannosaurus fighting Triceratops to the death, but did such battles ever happen?

Not only was Ornithomimus feathered, but the dinosaur’s fluffy coat changed as it aged.

Feathery Ostrich Mimics Enfluffle the Dinosaur Family Tree

A trio of feathered dinosaurs tests a longstanding hypothesis and hint that there may be more feathered dinosaur fossils than anyone ever expected

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Reviving Heterodontosaurus

Paleontologists have known about Heterodontosaurus for decades, but a new restoration of the dinosaur shows just how freaky it was

A reconstruction of Acrocanthosaurus at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina, where this year’s SVP reception was held.

Dinosaurs Rule at SVP

This year's SVP conference in Raleigh, North Carolina showcased a wealth of new dinosaur science

The peculiar, high-spined specimen that represents Becklespinax (left), and two possible restorations of the dinosaur by Darren Naish (right).

B is for Becklespinax

For over a century and a half, paleontologists have been confounded by the sail-backed carnivore Becklespinax. What did this dinosaur really look like?

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Tarbosaurus the Tip of the Black Market Iceberg

Earlier this week, federal officials arrested a man charged with selling numerous illegal dinosaur specimens

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Dinosaur Stampede, the Musical

What caused Australia's dinosaur stampede? A short musical performance suggests an answer

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