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Dinosaurs

Sacel Castle was the primary home of the Nopcsa family, which traced its roots in the area to the 14th century.

History Forgot This Rogue Aristocrat Who Discovered Dinosaurs and Died Penniless

Now fallen into shadow, the Romania-born Baron Franz Nopcsa was a groundbreaking scientist, adventurer — and would-be king

You'll never guess how researchers found this fossil of the petite terrestrial crocodile Hoplosuchus kayi.

These Are Some of the Weirdest Ways Paleontologists Find Fossils

Sometimes you pee on them, sometimes you’re just trying to get away from other paleontologists. Here are the discovery stories scientists won’t tell you

New Research

Mammals May Have Dinosaurs to Thank for Their Night Vision

Mammals most likely developed a new pathway to night vision to avoid the jaws of dinos and other daytime predators

Co-author in the new study, Nick Longrich from the Milner Centre for Evolution at Bath University, poses with some mammal specimens.

New Research

The Event that Wiped out Dinosaurs Also Nearly Did in the Mammals

New estimates suggest a measly seven percent of mammals survived the extinction

Pie chart showing the number of times ankylosaur fought a particular foe.

Sadly, “Ankylosaur Fight Club” Is Probably Wishful Thinking

Ornate armor may have had more to do with communication than combat

Prospecting for fossils in the Morrison Formation near Shell, Wyoming

Family Travel

Hunting Lost Worlds in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin

A geology tour with Kirk Johnson, Director of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and Will Clyde, a geology professor at University of New Hampshire

An artists' rendering of Machairoceratops cronusi, or "bent sword face." Machairoceratops was found in 77-million-year-old rock in southern Utah.

Two New Discoveries Add to a Horned Dino Revolution

Twenty years ago, there were about 23 horned dinosaurs. Today, the count has more than tripled

Chris Torres and Eric Gorscak take in the scenery at Cape Lamb—scenery that included lots of fossils.

Cool Finds

Fossil Hunters Uncover 71-Million-Year-Old Trove in Antarctica

After a plane flight, boat ride, helicopter lift and a lot of hiking, the scientists returned with a massive cache of fossils

The grand hall of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut—the wellspring of some the most distinguished scholarship of our times.

The Scientific Daredevils Who Made Yale’s Peabody Museum a National Treasure

When an award-winning science writer dug into the backstory of this New Haven institute, he found a world of scientific derring-do

Paleontologists Matt Lamanna and Ruben Martinez with the skull of Sarmientosaurus

New Research

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Species Had Great Eyesight and a Droopy Head

Sarmientosaurus weighed as much as two elephants but had a brain the size of a lime

The footprints of ankylosaurs and other 122-million-year-old dinosaurs are preserved outside Moab, Utah.

Paleontologists Unveil Dinosaur Stomping Ground in Utah

Visitors can view ghostly footprints that record prehistoric steps in pale blue stone

Researchers Piece Together Ancient Plesiosaur Attack

After examining bite marks on a 70-million-year old diving bird, researchers figure out who tried to have it for dinner

T. rex had tiny arms. But that’s no reason to mock the dinosaur.

Stop Making Fun of Tyrannosaurs’ Tiny Arms

The stubby limbs may seem out of place, but they may have been key to the T. rex’s terrifying bite

The Bisti Badlands in northern New Mexico is known for its Easter egg-like rock formations.

These Massive Rock Formations Look Just Like Cracked Eggs

Bisti Badlands’ bizarre eggs bring a bit of Easter to the New Mexico desert

When Dinosaurs Roamed the (Not Yet) Petrified Forest

Recent surprise discoveries at the national park have prompted a complete rethinking about the creatures of the Jurassic Era

A reconstruction of the horse-sized tyrannosaur Timurlengia euotica, named for the charismatic Central Asian ruler Tamerlane, shows the species' long, slender legs, large head and teeth built sharp like a steak knife.

The Discovery of a Tiny Tyrannosaur Adds New Insight Into the Origins of T. Rex

The horse-sized dino species had smarts and a keen sense of smell, setting the stage for the evolution of the enormous predator

An artist's rendering of Chicxulub, the asteroid believed to have wiped out large dinosaurs and reshaped parts of the world.

Journey to the Center of Earth

We Finally Know How Much the Dino-Killing Asteroid Reshaped Earth

The impact that wiped out large dinosaurs also dumped hundreds of feet of debris in the ocean off the Yucatán peninsula

At 122 feet long, The Titanosaur has to poke its tiny head out of the entryway to fit in the exhibit hall.

Here’s How You Squeeze the Biggest Dinosaur Into a New York City Museum

A team of specialists had to get creative to mount a towering Titanosaur inside the American Museum of Natural History

Cows graze near a huge replica of a dinosaur at the Balasinor fossil park. The area is littered with hundreds of dinosaur bones, teeth, skulls and eggs tens of millions of years old.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

Meet India’s Dinosaur Princess

Aaliya Sultana Babi is doing everything in her power to protect and promote India’s most significant fossil park

University of Colorado Denver researcher Martin Lockley (right) and Ken Cart pose beside large a dinosaur scrape they discovered in Western Colorado.

New Research

Dinosaurs May Have Dug Trenches to Woo Mates

Ancient grooves discovered in Colorado suggest dinos had bird-like mating rituals

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