Dinosaurs, as a scientific topic, encompass a diverse clade of archosaurian reptiles (primarily Dinosauria) that dominated terrestrial ecosystems during most of the Mesozoic Era and are central to research in vertebrate evolution, functional morphology, macroecology, and extinction dynamics. Study of dinosaurs integrates skeletal anatomy, phylogenetics, bone histology, biomechanics, ichnology, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction to investigate growth rates, locomotor strategies, trophic networks, and responses to climatic and tectonic changes. Modern research also emphasizes the dinosaur–bird transition, including the evolution of feathers, flight-related adaptations, and metabolic physiology, as well as patterns of diversification and selectivity associated with the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
"You want to stick your finger in a dinosaur brain?" asked Simba Srivastava. Surrounded by cabinets full of ancient bones in the paleobiology lab, the Virginia Tech undergraduate student held out a lumpy, pockmarked fossil.
Evolution
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In a surprising new study, Australia's most famous plant-eating dinosaur has been described as a "picky eater with a nose for good food" when it roamed across the continent around 96 million years ago. After examining different ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 14, 2026
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The study of dinosaurs has been through a revolution in recent decades. The story began half a century ago, when Robert McNeill Alexander, a professor of zoology at the University of Leeds, showed how the speed of an animal ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 5, 2026
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From color-changing skin to jet-propelled motion, squid and cuttlefish have long fascinated scientists. To understand the origins of their unique characteristics, many attempts have been made to define their evolutionary ...
Evolution
Mar 30, 2026
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A major gap in South Korea's prehistoric record has been filled with the discovery of Onggwanoolithus aphaedoensis, the first known bird-type dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous period of South Korea. The find, which is detailed ...
Cute, green, and sporting two sprigs of hair on his head, a mischievous baby dinosaur named Dooly is one of the most beloved cartoon characters in South Korea. So, when researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 19, 2026
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What do we really know about how oviraptors—bird-like but flightless dinosaurs—hatched their eggs? Did they use environmental heat, like crocodiles, or body heat from an adult, like birds? In a new Frontiers in Ecology and ...
Evolution
Mar 17, 2026
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My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: "Dent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Depéret," ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 16, 2026
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In biology and paleontology (the study of extinct organisms) there are a few ways to estimate the age of an animal's skeleton. One is the extent of fusion of sutures in the skeleton—how much the plates of bone have joined ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 14, 2026
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The oceans of the Cretaceous of North America teemed with life. Gigantic fish and enormous marine reptiles hunted the Western Interior Sea. A unique new fossil demonstrates rare evidence of direct conflict between these apex ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 13, 2026
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