Places and Structures
London Goes Back to the Age of the Dinosaur
Hot on the heels of the American Museum of Natural History's new "World's Largest Dinosaurs" exhibit, London's Natural History Museum has just launched its own dinosaur spectacular
May 13, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
A Delayed Tyrannosaurus Showdown
In 1913, paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History made plans for what would have been a spectacular reconstruction of a prehistoric battle. Too bad that their plans did not come to fruition.Tyrannosaurus rex—the most celebrated dinosaur of all time—made its debut at the AMNH. The f...
May 11, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
The Dinosaurs of Twitter
Non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct for about 65 million years, but that has not stopped them from showing up on Twitter. Several dinosaurs have been making the most of the social media platform. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History doesn't have one yet—I would personally love to he...
May 04, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
El Mirador, the Lost City of the Maya
Now overgrown by jungle, the ancient site was once the thriving capital of the Maya civilization
May 2011 |
By Chip Brown
A Tour of California's Spanish Missions
A poignant reminder of the region's fraught history, missions such as San Miguel are treasured for their stark beauty
May 2011 |
By Jamie Katz
Blog Carnival #31: Ancient Earth, World's Oldest ToothAche, Pot-Bellied Dinos and More
Thirty Earths: ArtEvolved points us to this remarkable set of images depicting the changing physical appearance of the Earth over the last 750 million years. The thirty visual reconstructions were recently released by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo...
April 29, 2011 |
By Mark Strauss
Why the MoMA Should Have Dinosaurs
The Museum of Modern Art needs dinosaurs. That was the conclusion of one young visitor named Annabelle after she failed to find any dinosaurs at the MoMA. "ou call your self a museum!" she chided on a comment cards, and her brief critique has been popping up all over the web this week.Not everyone ...
April 26, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
A Michigan Museum of Shipwrecks
On the shore of Lake Superior, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum details the history of boats lost in the deep waters
April 21, 2011 |
By Arcynta Ali Childs
A Velázquez in the Cellar?
Sorting through old canvases in a storeroom, a Yale curator discovered a painting believed to be by the Spanish master
April 2011 |
By Jamie Katz
What is Beneath the Temple Mount?
As Israeli archaeologists recover artifacts from the religious site, ancient history inflames modern-day political tensions
April 2011 |
By Joshua Hammer
Creating an Allosaurus Feast
I feel a little sorry that I said Allosaurus had one of the dullest names in paleontology yesterday. It's not the dinosaur's fault that Othniel Charles Marsh gave it the unimaginative title of "different reptile." Had Marsh seen the complete skeleton when he coined the name, perhaps he would have ...
March 23, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Were You Inspired by a Dinosaur?
About two weeks ago I visited the American Museum of Natural History for a preview of their upcoming dinosaur exhibit. The chance to visit the dinosaur halls—and the collections!—after dark was an opportunity I did not want to miss, especially since my first visit to the museum, in the late 1980s, ...
March 15, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: A Flying Ankylosaur
Have you ever seen an Ankylosaurus fly? Stout and covered in heavy armor, ankylosaurs were arguably the least aerodynamic of all dinosaurs, but two months ago the Houston Museum of Natural Science treated onlookers to such a sight as they lifted their ankylosaur sculpture out of its old exhibit.The...
March 14, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
An Early Preview of AMNH's "World's Largest Dinosaurs" Exhibit
Many years ago, before the major renovation of the dinosaur halls, my parents took me to see the dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). I will never forget that visit. Standing below the skeleton of the immense "Brontosaurus," I imagined what the animal would have looked like w...
March 08, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaurs Soon to Return to L.A. Museum
Slowly but surely, museums across the United States are updating their dinosaur exhibits. The state of dinosaur science is changing so rapidly that even exhibits renovated in the 1990s are at least partially outdated, and I am thrilled to see so many institutions incorporating the latest science i...
March 03, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
A Mega-Dam Dilemma in the Amazon
A huge dam on Peru's Inambari River will bring much-needed development to the region. But at what cost?
March 2011 |
By Clay Risen
St. George Gets a Scelidosaurus
Go to the dinosaur hall of almost any major natural history museum, and you are likely to find the same creatures. Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus... I have seen these dinosaurs over and over again, but there are hundreds and hundreds of dinosaur species that I have...
February 10, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
The Rediscovery of Gordo the Barosaurus
Stretching 90 feet long in life, Barosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. Despite its size, however, this sauropod was able to hide in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum for over four decades.Barosaurus were rare dinosaurs. One of the few skeletons ever found was uncovered by p...
February 02, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
The Wildlife of T.C. Boyle's Santa Barbara
The author finds inspiration at the doorstep of his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house near the central California town
February 2011 |
By T.C. Boyle
A Plague of Pigs in Texas
Now numbering in the millions, these shockingly destructive and invasive wild hogs wreak havoc across the southern United States
January 2011 |
By John Morthland
