Extinct Species, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2008

Dinosaur Dads Watched Over Eggs

In families of some of the most vicious and carnivorous dinosaurs, dad took care of the developing eggs, possibly laid by more than one mom, a new study suggests. Evidence for dino daddy daycare and potential polygamy comes from the fossilized remains of three dinosaurs sitting on nests. In the...

Sep 30, 2008

Tiny Skull Sheds Light on Strange Dinosaur Diets

A juvenile dinosaur weighing less than two sticks of butter was a toothy hodgepodge equipped with fang-like canines to tear into small mammals, reptiles and insects, as well as flat molars for plant munching. Researchers recently found the skull of this dinosaur called Heterodontosaurus tucki in a drawer at the...

Jul 31, 2008

Plant-Eating Dinos Grew Fast to Fend Off Tyrannosaurs

What some dinosaurs lacked in body armor, they made up for in size. The duck-billed hadrosaur grew to adulthood much faster than its predators, such as tyrannosaurs, a new study suggests. By about age 10, the plant-eating hadrosaur called Hypacrosaurus stebingeri had likely ballooned to its mature length of 30...

Apr 30, 2008

Huge Flying Reptiles Ate Dinosaurs

With a name like T. rex, you'd expect to be safe from even the fiercest paleo-bullies. Turns out, ancient, flying reptiles could have snacked on Tyrannosaurus Rex babies and other landlubbing runts of the dinosaur world. A new study reveals a group of flying reptiles that lived during the Age...

Mar 31, 2008

X-ray Vision Spies Dinosaur-Era Bugs

Hundreds of fossilized creatures from the Age of Dinosaurs have been discovered inside a type of amber into which scientists have now glimpsed for the first time. The trove of ancient animals was found in pieces of opaque amber, the secretive sister of the more familiar translucent amber gemstone. Though...

Mar 31, 2008

Grand Canyon Possibly Old as Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs roaming the American Southwest 65 million years ago may have teetered on the edges of an ancient version of the awe-inspiring cliffs and gorges we see today in the Grand Canyon, a new study suggests. The mile-deep canyon in Arizona was formed as the Colorado River scoured through ancient...

Feb 29, 2008

Fastest Evolving Creature is 'Living Dinosaur'

Scientists have pinned down the fastest-known evolving animal — a living dinosaur called a tuatara. The tuatara, Sphendon punctatus, resembles a lizard and is found only in New Zealand. It is the only surviving member of a reptilian order Sphehodontia that lived alongside early dinosaurs and separated from other reptiles...

Jan 31, 2008

Dinos' Veggie Diets Packed Surprising Punch

By mimicking the guts of the biggest dinosaurs, scientists now find the animals' diets of evergreens and ferns were more nourishing than previously thought. These new findings help solve the mystery of how such dinosaurs reached huge sizes off seemingly poor food. The largest animals to have ever lived on...

Dec 31, 2007

Something Fishy About This Dinosaur Discovery

An unusual carnivorous dinosaur whose skull looked part-crocodile may have fancied fish over other meat, research now reveals. These findings suggest the predator's huge fearsome 12-inch-long hand claws might have actually been used as grappling hooks to scoop fish from the water, somewhat like a grizzly bear. The dinosaur in...

Nov 30, 2009

Album: Colorful Dinosaur Art

Eye of the Riverbed: (Tyrannosaurus) (Image credit: Photograph © Julius T. Csotonyi (csotonyi.com). Image used with permission.)The bipedal Tyrannosaurus rex used its long tail to balance its large head as it roamed in search of prey. Scientists don’t know whether T. rex could run at high speeds or whether its...

Oct 31, 2009

Image Gallery: Drawing Dinosaurs

Tyrannosaurus rex (Image credit: Photograph © Julius T. Csotonyi (csotonyi.com). Image used with permission.)With its 4-foot long mouth full of sharp 6-inch teeth, the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex could easily rip into its prey. Tyrannosaurus rex (Image credit: Photograph © Julius T. Csotonyi (csotonyi.com). Image used with permission.)About 15 feet tall...

Oct 31, 2009

T. rex's Oldest Relative Discovered

Spanning just 10 feet in length and sporting a tiny horn on its nose, a newly identified dinosaur has become the oldest known relative of the fierce meat-eater, Tyrannosaurus rex. The discovery suggests such tyrannosaurs were quite petite before they evolved into giant killing machines just before their demise. The...

Oct 31, 2009

Key to Success? Dinosaurs May Have Been Warm-Blooded

Many dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded just like mammals or birds, potentially explaining their extraordinary success before their extinction. For decades, scientists assumed that because dinosaurs resembled lizards, they were cold-blooded as well, their internal temperature rising and falling with the outside world. However, birds are warm-blooded, and the fact...

Oct 31, 2009

Following Feathers from Birds to Dinosaurs

Richard Prum, a biologist at Yale University and the director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, is one of the leading experts on the evolution of feathers and the relationship between birds and their dinosaur ancestors Recently, Prum and his colleagues showed that an ancient, 47-million-year-old bird had...

Sep 30, 2009

Flying Reptile May Have Snatched Dinosaurs in Midair

A crow-sized reptile sporting a lengthy tail likely soared through the skies some 160 million years ago, snatching feathered dinosaurs and tiny flying mammals from the air, suggest fossils of a newly identified pterosaur. While paleontologists can't go back in time to watch the in-flight meal capture, the reptile's fossils,...