Riley Black

Riley Black

 

Riley Black is a freelance science writer specializing in evolution, paleontology and natural history who blogs regularly for Scientific American.

Welcome back, Brontosaurus?

Back to Brontosaurus? The Dinosaur Might Deserve Its Own Genus After All

The popular name could be pulled back out of the scientific wastebasket, based on new analysis of dozens of related dinosaurs

Not so mysterious: This is not a realistic depiction of a T. rex dinner.

The Ten Biggest Dinosaur Mysteries We Have Yet to Solve

Which one was the first, the biggest, the fuzziest? These puzzles continue to perplex paleontologists

A serval kitten.

Ten Amazing Small Wild Cats

Forget the lions and tigers, these prowling felines have much more to tell us about the natural world

Silhouette of the Tyrannosaurus called Stan. This "tyrant lizard king," was excavated and prepared by the Black Hills Institute.

The Top Ten Weirdest Dinosaur Extinction Ideas

Paleontologists, both professional and amateur, have dreamed up some bizarre explanations of how the dinosaurs disappeared from Earth

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How Scientists Are Recreating a Mating Call Last Heard in the Jurassic Period

Preserved in stone, a set of ancient insect wings are “chirping” once again thanks to the work of entomologists

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The Most Exciting (and Frustrating) Stories From This Year in Dinosaurs

From feathers to black market fossil controversies, 2012 was a big year for dinosaurs

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From Golf Courses to Petting Zoos, Dinosaurs Get in the Way

Recently unveiled dinosaur sculptures are frustrating eyesores to some and tourist attractions to others

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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