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. 

One of the Copper Ridge theropod tracks. The front of the foot - indicated by the three toe impressions - is towards the top of the picture.

Dinosaur Diamond: Following an Injured Allosaurus

A fresh coating of dried mud gave the 150-million-year-old tracks a more recent look, as if dinosaurs had walked by just last week

A hump-backed Spinosaurus, restored by R.E. Johnson and from Bailey 1997.

Was Spinosaurus a Bison-Backed Dinosaur?

Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were fundamentally different, and they remain among the most bizarre dinosaurs yet discovered

The Mamenchisaurus centerpiece in the "World's Largest Dinosaurs" exhibit.

Name a Giant Dinosaur

Should Mamenchisaurus go by the nickname Neckita? Mei Mei? Tiny? Vote now

Tracks made by a medium-sized theropod on a slab of rock just outside of Moab, Utah.

Dinosaur Diamond: Moab’s Potash Road

The area is piled high with sedimentary rock from the heyday of the dinosaurs. At a few spots, it's easy to see the animals' tracks

The reconstructed skeleton of "Brontosaurus" from W.D. Matthew's 1915 book Dinosaurs.

Two Views on How to Make a Baby Sauropod

It took a long time—and a new understanding of sauropod lifestyles—to figure out whether they laid eggs or gave birth to live young

The horns of Marsh's Bison alticornis, now recognized as those of a ceratopsian dinosaur.

When Triceratops Was a Giant Bison

The giant with the "three-horned face" was originally mistaken for a very different creature

The cover of Doug TenNapel's Tommysaurus Rex.

Pen and Ink Dinosaurs: Tommysaurus Rex

Tyrannosaurus rex is the antithesis of everything a good pet should be. “Literally awful and almost certainly needing a special insurance policy” to keep

A skeleton of the Late Triassic ichthyosaur Shastasaurus liangae.

Slurp! The Marine Reptile Shastasaurus Was a Suction Feeder

Thanks to new specimens found in China, paleontologists have discovered that Shastasaurus ate very much like a beaked whale does today

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One Dinosaur Too Many?

Are there too many dinosaurs? Paleontologist Jack Horner thinks so, and he explained his reasoning in a short TED talk last month

A Spinosaurus sculpture near an ice cream shop in California.

Dinosaur Sighting: Spinosaurus Scoop

Spinosaurus may not be as popular as Tyrannosaurus, but sculptures and models of the sail-backed predatory dinosaur are common along America's roadsides

A restoration of Apatosaurus

Dinosaur Skin Scraps Are a Jurassic Mystery

Paleontologist Philip Currie poses with a tyrannosaur skull.

Tarbosaurus Gangs: What Do We Know?

The proposal of pack-hunting dinosaurs is old news in paleontological circles, and the evidence to support the claims about Tarbosaurus hasnt been released

Boneheads by Richard Polsky

Boneheads: A Paleontological Mid-Life Crisis

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The Diplodocus Tripod

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Tiny Tarbosaurus Shows How Tyrants Grew Up

The new Tarbosaurus juvenile is a truly remarkable specimen

The London Natural History Museum

London Goes Back to the Age of the Dinosaur

The fossil-rich landscape of Wyoming's Bighorn Basin

Wyoming Workshop Offers Teachers a Week With Dinosaurs

Based out of Shell, Wyoming, the workshops can be taken for college credit and are led by Smithsonian paleontologist Michael Brett-Surman

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A Delayed Tyrannosaurus Showdown

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Kelmayisaurus Gets a Family

O.C. Marsh's conception of an eight-spiked Stegosaurus

The Myth of the Eight-Spiked Stegosaurus

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