The Dinosaur Record
The Day the Asteroid Hit: What Actually Killed the Dinosaurs?
Chicxulub caused a regional catastrophe in minutes, but darkness, cooling, acidification, and food-web collapse turned impact day into a global mass extinction.
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The Dinosaur Record
Follow the fossil evidence to see how dinosaurs looked, moved, evolved, and lived—and where the science still leaves room for debate.
The Dinosaur Record begins with the evidence that survived: bones, teeth, eggs, footprints, feathers, and the rocks around them. Those clues can reveal how an animal grew, moved, fed, and shared its environment—but they do not answer every question equally well.
Each explanation separates direct fossil evidence from scientific inference and open questions. The aim is not to make dinosaurs look more dramatic than they were. It is to show how paleontologists reconstruct animals and ecosystems that no human ever saw.
Videos and articles
Watch or read the explanation.
Each page includes the original video, a short answer, key points, chapters, and sources.
The Dinosaur Record
The Real Velociraptor Was Nothing Like the Movies
The real Velociraptor was a small feathered Mongolian predator whose famous sickle claw probably gripped prey rather than slashing it open.
The Dinosaur Record
How an Edmontosaurus Mummy Revealed Hoof-Like Toes
A paper-thin clay template preserved the living outline of Edmontosaurus feet, revealing broad hoof-like toe sheaths and a padded heel.
The Dinosaur Record
Doolysaurus: The Baby Dinosaur Hidden Inside a Korean Rock
Micro-CT scans exposed a juvenile dinosaur, skull fragments, and clustered stomach stones inside an unassuming rock from South Korea.
The Dinosaur Record
A Young Gorgosaurus Died with Its Last Two Meals Inside
Fossil stomach contents reveal two young Citipes meals and show why juvenile tyrannosaurs occupied a different predatory role from adults.
The Dinosaur Record
Why Pterosaurs Were Not Dinosaurs
The fossil features that place pterosaurs beside dinosaurs on the archosaur family tree, not inside Dinosauria.
The Dinosaur Record
T. rex Arms Were Small—but Built for Force
What T. rex arm bones reveal about strength, reach, evolution, and the limits of claims about how the dinosaur used them.
The Dinosaur Record
What Changed the Nanotyrannus Debate in 2025
Two mature small tyrannosaur specimens and whole-skeleton anatomy changed the question from juvenile T. rex to a distinct Nanotyrannus lineage.
The Dinosaur Record
How Fona Was Built for Life Underground
How Fona's shoulders, hips, hind limbs, and unusual fossil preservation support a cautious case for a burrowing dinosaur.
The Dinosaur Record
How a Dinosaur Becomes a Fossil—and Why Most Never Do
How burial, groundwater, sedimentary rock, erosion, and excavation turn rare dinosaur remains into scientific evidence.
The Dinosaur Record
How Dinosaurs Grew So Fast—and Why Some Took Longer
How fossil bone tissue, growth marks, and growth curves reveal fast but varied schedules in Maiasaura, Tyrannosaurus, sauropods, and other dinosaurs.
The Dinosaur Record
How Scientists Estimate a Dinosaur's Age From Its Bones
Thin sections of fossil bone preserve growth marks, tissue patterns, and missing chapters that help scientists estimate a dinosaur's age and maturity.
The Dinosaur Record
How Impact Winter Killed the Non-Avian Dinosaurs
How Chicxulub dust, soot, and aerosols darkened and cooled Earth, collapsed photosynthesis, and starved non-avian dinosaur food webs.
The Dinosaur Record
How Water Shaped the Cretaceous Gobi
What Gobi rocks reveal about Late Cretaceous dunes, temporary ponds, rivers, sudden burial, and the landscapes that preserved dinosaurs.
The Dinosaur Record
Why Museum Dinosaur Skeletons Use Casts and Replica Bones
How museums combine original fossils, casts, mirrored bones, and reconstructions—and why a replica can sometimes show one animal more accurately.