Extinct Animals

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

The method this ancient carnivore employed is unlike anything we see in predators today.

By Jesslyn Shields

The character of King Louie gets a serious primate upgrade in the new Disney live-action-meets-CGI film. Did the ape also serve as inspiration for sasquatch and yeti?

By Laurie L. Dove

Centuries later, the flightless bird is finally getting some cred.

By Robert Lamb

Both of these massive prehistoric creatures belonged to the same family, but they're actually very different species.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

Grizzly bears are usually associated with colder climates, so you might be surprised to learn that they've also called Mexico home.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

The basic idea of "Jurassic Park" - minus the carnage - is both appealing and approaching reality. But reintroducing extinct species requires some careful consideration.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

A lot of prehistoric animals were massive, but do we really know why? And is there a larger animal roaming the planet today?

By Karen Kirkpatrick & Sarah Gleim

They were creatures of the air, but they aren't part of the avian family tree - and don't call them dinosaurs. What was life like for the pterosaurs, and what has sparked renewed interest in these flying reptiles?

By Clint Pumphrey

A stunning array of strange and ferocious aquatic beasts patrolled Earth's waters long before they became the stuff of legends and "Jurassic Park" movies. One could eat a great white shark in one gulp.

By Chris Opfer

If you thought sea monsters were just the stuff of myth, you thought wrong. With giant, razor-sharp teeth, ancient cetaceans - the ancestors to modern whales, dolphins and porpoises - make even nightmares seem dull.

By Marie Look

Hop in your time machine, set the clock back a few thousand years and meet some woolly wonders. They even have a few things to teach us about the fate of modern elephants.

By Nicholas Gerbis

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

Learn more about the top 10 most mysterious creatures to disappear from the earth.

By Desiree Bowie

The megalodon was born as big as an adult great white and grew to weigh as much as 7 Tyrannosaurus rex. Learn all about the megalodon.

By Joy H. Montgomery

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.