Riley Black

 

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications. 

Rainforests, like this one in Ecuador, only appeared after the mass extinction that ended the Age of Dinosaurs.

No, Dinosaurs Did Not Trudge Through Thick Rainforests

The first jungles dense with flowering plants only formed after an asteroid impact wiped out the giant creatures

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light

Geologists Uncover Remnants of Earth’s Mantle That Have Lasted Over 2.5 Billion Years

New research suggests that a discrepancy in rocks shows they endured extreme heat, and reveals more about an ancient part of our planet’s history

Asteroid impacts and volcanism have led to mass extinctions on our planet.

Has Life on Earth Survived More Than Five Mass Extinctions?

Scientists aren’t just arguing whether humans are causing a sixth mass extinction event now, but whether many more occurred in the past

The planet-forming disk is made of gas and dust.

This Giant Cosmic 'Butterfly' Is a Planet-Forming Disk

New research has confirmed that the celestial object may be the biggest of its kind ever found

This fossilized Buronius tooth is roughly a third of an inch long.

Do These Fossilized Teeth Belong to the World’s Smallest Great Ape?

Researchers say two teeth and a kneecap belong to a previously unknown species that lived in what is now Germany

A mother Siphonops annulatus with newborn babies.

Inside the Wild Ways Many Creatures Make Milk

Mammals aren’t the only animals that provide nutritious secretions for their young

Exceeding 50 feet in length, Mosasaurus hoffmannii was among the largest mosasaurs.

Massive Mosasaurs May Have Evolved More Than Once

The predators, which were made famous in the “Jurassic World” franchise, likely arose at least three times

The bamboo octocoral Isidella sp. displaying bioluminescence in the Bahamas in 2009.

Glowing Sea Creatures Have Been Lighting Up the Oceans for More Than Half a Billion Years

New research on branching animals known as octocorals pushes the early days of bioluminescence back over 200 million years

An elephant seal pup on South Georgia Island

Why Did Seals and Sea Lions Never Commit to a Life Fully at Sea?

While whales moved from living on land to an existence immersed in water, pinnipeds embraced an amphibious lifestyle

Paleontologists are still investigating what the carnivorous dinosaur Megalosaurus looked like.

Paleontologists Are Still Unraveling the Mystery of the First Dinosaur

Two hundred years after it was first named, scientists are just beginning to reveal the secrets of Megalosaurus

Paleontologists have recognized three related, parrot-like dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation. Eoneophron infernalis (top left) walks by MOR 752 (bottom left) and Anzu wyliei (right).

Newly Discovered, Parrot-Like Dinosaur Roamed North America Alongside T. Rex

While larger dinosaurs are comparatively well-known, finding smaller species paints a more complete picture of life before the mass extinction

A museum curator gives a sense of scale to the reconstructed jaws of the fossil shark Otodus megalodon.

Was Megalodon Slimmer Than Previously Thought?

A new study has spurred scientists to debate the shape of prehistory’s biggest shark

The earliest known fossil of epidermis was preserved due to unique circumstances.

This 288-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Scrap of Skin Is the World's Oldest

The remains, found in an Oklahoma cave, belonged to a lizard-like reptile

Ten big dinosaur discoveries stood out in 2023.

The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2023

From uncovering a tyrannosaur’s last meal to unlocking the secrets of a dino with a really long neck, these were the year’s biggest stories

Our ten favorite science books of the year covered everything from astronomy to undersea exploration.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2023

From stories on the depths of the ocean to the stars in the sky, these are the works that moved us the most this year

This well-preserved track from Australia clearly shows the four toes of an ancient bird.

Australia's Oldest Known Bird Tracks Are 120 Million Years Old

In that age, the continent was attached to Antarctica, but migrating animals still traveled to the polar region for sustenance

Basilosaurus hunts fish.

Ancient Whales Were the Biggest and Smallest of Their Kind to Ever Roam the Oceans

New discoveries show how whale diversity exploded after the dinosaurs disappeared

One of the first toothed birds ever discovered, Hesperornis paddled with its hind feet to hunt fish and evade marine reptiles in warm, Cretaceous seas.

During the Age of Dinosaurs, Some Birds Sported Toothy Grins

The often overlooked animals thrived for millions of years

An artist’s illustration of Quetzalcoatlus flying

How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of Flight

After paleontologists cracked the secrets of the ancient flying reptiles, researchers are thinking about how to harness their methods

An artistic reconstruction shows a group of Burgessomedusa phasmiformis swimming in the Cambrian sea.

These 508-Million-Year-Old Fossils May Be Earth’s Oldest Swimming Jellyfish

Researchers found the rare remains in Canada

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