Stories by Riley Black

The prehistoric elephant used its shovel-shaped mouth to cut, not scoop

This ancient otter is named in honor of a real rock star

Modern cat colors fill in pelage possibilities for extinct species

Big cats have added to, and sometimes confounded, the archaeological record

This newly named protomammal had forward-curving tusks

Despite being discovered over a century ago, Synoplotherium is still an enigma

This swimming snake is the oldest yet found in northern South America

This new fossil outlines the rise and fall of fish-like reptiles.

One of the earliest bats was not only a giant, but an omnivore.

A skeletal cache has revealed an unseen aspect of lion behavior.

A "false saber cat" skull is the first of its kind found in China

Bones from Wyoming's Natural Trap Cave turn out to be those of a wolf never before found in the lower 48

A mystery for decades, Elaphrosaurus finally finds its perch in the dinosaur family tree

Prehistoric puke reveals what some toothed birds were eating

Once considered beyond the reach of science, insights into the love lives of these extinct giants are emerging

A recently examined snake brood represents the first example of wild facultative parthenogesis in a sexually reproducing species

Evidence is mounting against claims that dinosaurs could not have been endothermic, including a new analysis of fossil microstructures found in ruminants, lizards, dinosaurs and crocodiles

A recently discovered fossil foot hints that tree-dwellers lived alongside species built for walking

What if, by some fluke of evolutionary history, dinosaurs never went extinct? A geologist's imaginings of this scenario now bear a remarkable resemblance to creatures preserved in recent discoveries

Lice lineages began to split and diversify during the late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs, birds and early mammals probably were on the resilient parasites' menus