Stories by Riley Black

Tracks in Scotland record Jurassic strolls along a lagoon

A strange paper offers an odd idea for why nonavian dinosaurs died out. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny

This Cretaceous chelonian is close to the origin of the hard-shelled sea turtles that still swim the oceans

Bones previously thought to be dinosaurian have turned out to be from a very different sort of prehistoric creature

Beautiful fossils offer a rare look at what covered the bodies of some of our protomammal relatives

A new study asks why some dinosaurs wore such different arrangements of horns

A small skull found in Connecticut offers a new view to ancient reptilian bites

A fossil manatee relative is the first of its kind found in Eurasia

The debate over what sort of environment molded turtles into shelled wonders continues

A newly named prehistoric fish is a reminder that there's more to the fossil record than dinosaurs and toothy reptiles

A new study reveals modern horses retain vestiges of all five ancestral toes

A newly named armored dinosaur is among the earliest with a tail club

Analysis of a fossil bird reveals an unexpected facet of dinosaur life.

"Bloat and float" leads armored dinosaurs to wind up in unusual places

Paleontologists have uncovered a new species of sabercat from a site made famous by its relevance to early human history

Hard-shelled animals with impressive tail clubs have evolved multiple times. A new study investigates why

An ancient arachnid related to early spiders shows a strange mix of features

For over a century the natural history of the fossil reptile Tanystropheus has puzzled paleontologists

Ice age tracks put ancient giraffes in an unexpected place

A dinosaur from Egypt helps make sense of global patterns among long-necked herbivores

New finds have complicated the traditional way of distinguishing horned dinosaurs

This ancient worm is the latest rockstar from the Cambrian Explosion

A newly-named feathered dinosaur had exceptional, iridescent plumage

Old bones raise new questions about an enigmatic horned dinosaur