In recent years, scientists studying dinosaurs have revolutionized what we know about a world lost to time, much of it covered here. In this issue look for extraordinary paleoart inspired by the latest research showing what dinosaurs looked like in real life (feathered, striped, camouflaged); how many of them managed to live so gigantically large; how they ate; and how they mated and had their young. Also inside: surprising new details about their tragic last days on Earth, after an asteroid from space wiped them out, creating the wild new world that included us.
POPULAR SCIENCE® DINOSAURS • NEW SECRETS OF A LOST WORLD
LOST WORLD FOUND
EMERGENCE • NEW VIEW: LIZARD-LIKE, MAMMAL-LIKE, FEATHERED, FAST
rise of the giants • SOME 200 MILLION YEARS AGO, A MASS EXTINCTION PROPELLED A GROUP OF SMALL REPTILES TO DOMINANCE ON PLANET EARTH
A warming planet may have set the stage.
Picturing the dinosaur • COLORIZED, CAMOUFLAGED, SPECKLED OR STRIPED. ADVANCES IN ART AND SCIENCE HAVE REDRAWN SPECIES LOST TO TIME.
JUST - FOUND SPECIES • METALHEADS, SPIKE-EYED TYRANNOSAURS, AND FEATHER-COVERED ‘CHEETAHS.’ HERE’S A PICTORIAL GUIDE TO PALEONTOLOGY’S RECENT HITS.
GHOSTS OF DINOSAURS PAST • WE’VE BARELY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE OF THE FOSSIL RECORD. WHAT ARE PALEONTOLOGISTS STILL MISSING?
DOMINION • NATURE ENDOWED THEM WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF GIFTS
IT TAKES A VILLAGE • DINOSAURS WHO STUCK TOGETHER SURVIVED TOGETHER.
what was going on inside of the spinosaur’s brain • SCIENTISTS DIGITALLY REMASTER THE BRAINS OF TWO ‘ENORMOUS RIVER MONSTERS’ TO TRY AND FIND OUT.
giganotosaurus VS. t.rex • WHO WOULD WIN IN A BATTLE OF THE GIANTS? IT’S FUN TO IMAGINE A SCI-FI SHOWDOWN BETWEEN THE TWO CRETACEOUS CARNIVORES.
The threat that Tyrannosaurus rex actually faced. • ANKYLOSAURS MAY HAVE USED THEIR TAILS TO CLUB EACH OTHER AND TAKE DOWN T. REX, TOO.
AT HOME WITH THE titans • IN THIS Q&A, PALEONTOLOGIST KRISTINA CURRY ROGERS DESCRIBES HER STUDY OF TITANOSAURS FROM HATCHLINGS TO THE LARGEST BEHEMOTHS EVER TO WALK THE EARTH.
they even got colds • FOSSILIZED VERTEBRAE SHOW THAT A SAUROPOD NAMED DOLLY PROBABLY CAUGHT A FUNGAL RESPIRATORY INFECTION.
MYSTERIES • WERE THEY WARM-BLOODED? HOW DID THEY HAVE SEX?
were dinosaurs hot or not? • DID ANCIENT REPTILES RUN WARM-OR COLD-BLOODED? NEW EVIDENCE REIGNITES AN OLD DEBATE.
SCIENTISTS ARE STILL BANGING OUT THEORIES ABOUT HOW DINOSAURS HAD SEX • PEEKING INTO THE SCIENCE OF PREHISTORIC REPRODUCTION ISN’T VOYEURISTIC. SEX IS SOMETHING LIFE ON EARTH DOES WITH CREATIVITY AND GUSTO.
This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex. • THE CLOACA IS THE HOLE-Y GRAIL TO UNDERSTANDING PREHISTORIC COPULATION.
BAD SWIMMERS • THEY DOMINATED THE EARTH, BUT NOT THE SEAS. THE QUESTION IS WHY.
LIFE AQUATIC
T. REX REIGNED FOR MORE THAN 125,000 GENERATIONS • THEY TERRORIZED THE LANDSCAPE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, BUT THERE WERE ONLY 20,000 ON THE PLANET AT ANY GIVEN TIME.
feasting • FROM SWALLOWING OTHER BEASTS WHOLE TO NIBBLING THE TOPS OF TREES TO DINING ALL DAY LONG, DINOSAURS HAD UNTOLD NUMBERS OF UNIQUE FEEDING STRATEGIES TO KEEP THEM ALIVE.
Pucker Up • T-REX AND OTHER DINO PREDATORS MAY HAVE HAD LIPS.
The real Jurassic Park may have been in the arctic • CARNIVORES AND HERBIVORES ALIKE SPENT BIG CHUNKS OF TIME IN MODERN-DAY ALASKA.
ENDGAME • THE WORST DAY ON EARTH AND WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
LAST DAYS OF THE DINOSAURS • HOW AN ASTEROID WIPED OUT THE RULING SPECIES AND CREATED A WILD NEW WORLD
Impact Winter • SOOT DARKENED THE SKIES AND CONSIGNED SPECIES TO OBLIVION.
THE DELUGE • HOW A DINOSAUR-KIL LING...