Dinosaurs

Determining the biggest dinosaur is a tricky process. Dinosaurs are extinct, so scientists can't simply go out and measure the world's biggest dinosaurs.

By Sascha Bos

Utahraptors lived around 135 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period. So what does salt have to do with these massive dinosaurs whose fossils were first discovered in 1975?

By Mark Mancini

Known by the nickname "Mesozoic Cow," the African dinosaur Nigersaurus taqueti has also had its face compared to a vacuum cleaner.

By Mark Mancini

Fossils of just 12 individual Archaeopteryx, a winged dinosaur that live during the Jurassic, have ever been found. Aside from the rarity, what else makes this unique dinosaur so special?

By Mark Mancini

Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the fiercest meat-eaters ever, is the animal that probably springs to mind when most of us hear the word "dinosaur."

By Mark Mancini

Ankylosaurus was a dinosaur with short, squat legs that allowed it to run at about 6 miles per hour – fast, but not fast enough to outrun a large carnivorous predator like Tyrannosaurus rex.

By Patty Rasmussen & Talon Homer

Stegosaurus, an herbivorous dinosaur from 149 million years ago, walked on four legs, had a long, beak-tipped skull, a row of spikes adorning its tail and a pea-sized brain.

By Mark Mancini

Triceratops — which literally means "three-horned face" — is one of the most spectacular and well-known of all dinosaurs. It shared the Cretaceous landscape with, and probably was preyed upon by, Tyrannosaurus rex.

By Mark Mancini

Constantly compared to the Tyrannosaurus rex, the Giganotosaurus was one of a handful of dinosaurs that rivaled, or possibly exceeded, the creature in size.

By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer

The villainous dinosaur from 'Jurassic Park' probably never had an affinity for water.

By Mark Mancini

Someone just paid $2.36 million to take home an exquisite dinosaur skeleton. The sale has added to the growing scientific anxiety about the commodification of precious, irreplaceable fossils.

By Mark Mancini

Scientists are at odds about whether Velociraptors worked together to take down their prey.

By Mark Mancini

Tyrannosaurus rex was a giant predator that roamed the earth, so why did it have such tiny arms?

By Mark Mancini

Scientists generally agree that dinosaurs sported colorful, feather-like plumage. So do moviemakers lack imagination, or do audiences?

By Chris Opfer

OK, hop in your time machine and go back 67 million years or so to the Cretaceous period. Then find a Tyrannosaurus rex and challenge it to a race. Sounds crazy, huh? Could you really outrun a Tyrannosaurus rex?

By Alison Cooper

It isn't hard to imagine this scene even though dinosaurs haven't walked the earth for millions of years. Dinosaurs have captured our imaginations. These dinosaur articles have been written to lead you into the exciting world of dinosaur research and back to the "Age of Dinosaurs."

By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

A full grown Allosaurus could be up to 34 feet long, stand 9 feet tall and weigh around 3 tons. This dino was a monster who, scientists suspect, would even eat his own kind.

By Mark Mancini

Apatosaurus was a huge sauropod from the Jurassic period. And there's a debate that's been raging for decades about whether its genus should cancel out the Brontosaurus entirely.

By Mark Mancini

Brachiosaurus has been portrayed in popular culture many times, but the representations of this mysterious dinosaur are largely based on another massive dino called Giraffatitan brancai.

By Mark Mancini

Supersaurus was a dinosaur that truly deserved its name. It measured about 100 feet in length and lived in North America. This dinosaur lived on a diet that consisted mostly of chutes and leaves from the tops of trees.

By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

The 1964 discovery of Deinonychus in southern Montana was groundbreaking for many reasons, mostly because it helped prove that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.

By Mark Mancini

Dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. How and why is a puzzle that paleontologists are trying to solve by studying fossils and rock formations. Learn more about the different extinction theories.

By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Interest in dinosaurs soared to new heights in the 1990s, thanks largely to the blockbuster film Jurassic Park. So too did dinosaur discoveries. Since 1990, more than 100 new dinosaur genera have been described and named. Learn more about recent dinosaur discoveries.

By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Since it was named in 1979 by John Horner and Robert Makela, Maiasaura has become one of the most famous dinosaurs. It has provided information about how it cared for its young and the early development of dinosaurs. Learn more about the Maiasaura.

By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

The Velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" were roughly the size of humans. In reality, they were about the size of an average turkey.

By Mark Mancini