Riley Black

Riley Black

 

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

Artist's impression of Utahraptor

The Continuously Evolving Picture of the World's Largest Raptor

Utahraptor is an official state dinosaur and an NBA mascot's inspiration. Understanding it has been anything but simple

Artist impression of Allosaurus

Carnivorous Dinosaurs Like Allosaurus Were Cannibals

Tooth-marked bones show that huge flesh-eaters had no qualms about chomping their own kind when times got tough

A new study from scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center analyzed about 35,000 bone and shell fragments from the Maya city of Ceibal.

Bones Tell the Tale of a Maya Settlement

A new study tracks how the ancient civilization used animals for food, ritual purposes and even as curiosities

Herrerasaurus skeleton replica at a special exhibition of the Naturmuseum Senckenberg

The Rise of Meat-Eating Dinosaurs Is More Complicated Than We Thought

Paleontologists are searching for how carnivorous dinosaurs went from pipsqueaks to titans

Reconstruction of Palaeochiropteryx

Why Bats Are One of Evolution’s Greatest Puzzles

Paleontologists seek the ancestors that could explain how bats became the only flying mammals.

Paleontologists crossing the Rio Yurúa in Amazonian Perú, with the Santa Rosa fossil site in the background.

More Than 30 Million Years Ago, Monkeys Rafted Across the Atlantic to South America

Fossil teeth uncovered in Peru reveal that an extinct family of primates, thought to have lived only in Africa, made it across the ocean

Stromatolites at Lake Thetis, Western Australia

Why It’s So Difficult to Find Earth’s Earliest Life

Debate over Earth’s oldest fossils fuels the search for our deepest origins

The new dinosaur is called Thanatotheristes degrootorum.

Newly Discovered Tyrannosaur Was Key to the Rise of Giant Meat-Eaters

A partial skull found in Alberta helps put a timer on when the 'tyrant lizards' got big

A melanistic Indian leopard in Nagarhole National Park.

Why Are Black Leopards So Rare?

Several species of cat have members with all-black coats, but the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages are just starting to be understood

Short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, underwater off Isla San Marcos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Ancient Whale Fossil Helps Detail How the Mammals Took From Land to Sea

A 39-million-year-old whale with floppy feet, which may not have been very good for walking, helps illuminate the massive animals' transition to the oceans

Two Majungasaurus hunting down a Rapetosaurus.

Flesh-Ripping Dinosaurs Replaced Their Teeth Multiple Times a Year

A high rate of tooth turnover gave these prehistoric carnivores an edge

Although ammonoids died out around the same time as most dinosaurs, new computer models are revealing how these marine animals moved through the water.

Video Game-Inspired Models Demonstrate How Prehistoric Squid Relatives Swam Through the Seas

By simulating liquid flows around the shells of ammonoids, scientists study how these ancient animals moved

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima.

Newly Discovered Fossil Bird Fills in Gap Between Dinosaurs and Modern Fliers

A skeleton from the Cretaceous found in Japan reveals an early bird with a tail nub resembling the avians of today

CGI rendering of ancient Loxolophus mammal taken from the PBS NOVA special, Rise of the Mammals. In this recreation, Loxolophus scavenges for food in the palm dominated forests found within the first 300,000 years after the dinosaur extinction.

Fossil Site Reveals How Mammals Thrived After the Death of the Dinosaurs

Recent discoveries highlight how mammals lived before and after the asteroid impact that triggered the world's fifth mass extinction

A reconstruction of a Siamraptor skull based on fossil evidence.

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Was a Giant 'Shark Tooth' Carnivore

<i>Siamraptor suwati</i>, discovered in Thailand, sliced flesh with razor-sharp teeth rather than crushing the bones of its prey

An artist's depiction of an asteroid impacting the Earth.

What Happened the Day a Giant, Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Hit the Earth

Using rock cores from Chicxulub crater, geologists piece together a new timeline of the destruction that followed impact

By comparing the skulls of extinct dinosaurs to those of living relatives, such as crocodiles and wild turkeys, researchers have conclude that the prehistoric beasts had sophisticated thermoregulation systems in their skulls.

Special Skull Windows Helped Dinosaur Brains Keep Cool

Dinosaur skulls had many cavities and openings, some of which may have held blood vessels to help cool off the animals' heads

A reconstruction of Cambroraster falcatus, a large predator arthropod of the Cambrian Period.

Prehistoric Ocean Predator Resembles a Large and Vicious Horseshoe Crab

“Prey would have been sucked into the circular mouth and shredded by the multiple rows of large teeth”

Hesperornithoides miessleri was a feathered dinosaur with many features we now associate with birds.

Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds

A small, 150 million-year-old dinosaur unearthed in Wyoming ran on the ground, but it may have been closely related to some of the first fliers

An artist’s rendering of ancient Arctic hyenas belonging to the genus Chasmaporthetes. A new study reports that two enigmatic fossil teeth found in Yukon Territory in Canada belonged to Chasmaporthetes, making the teeth the first known fossils of hyenas found in the Arctic.

Prehistoric Hyena’s Teeth Show Bone-Crushing Carnivore Roamed the Arctic

The only hyena to live in North America, <i>Chasmaporthetes</i>, had the stature of a wolf and the powerful jaws of its modern relatives

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