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dinosaurs

Dark Matter and Periodic Mass Extinctions? Not So Fast!

Don Prothero considers a conjecture proposed to explain a supposed periodicity in mass extinctions.

Dr. Lisa Randall — Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe

Renowned Harvard cosmologist and theoretical physicist Dr. Lisa Randall explores a scenario in which a disk of dark matter — the elusive stuff in the universe that interacts through gravity like ordinary matter, but that doesn’t emit or absorb light — dislodged a comet from the Oort cloud that was ultimately responsible for the dinosaurs’ extinction. Randall teaches us an enormous amount about dark matter, our Universe, our galaxy, asteroids, and comets—and the process by which scientists explore new concepts.

It Coulda Been a Contender: A Paleontologist Reviews Jurassic World

Donald Prothero reviews a fanciful summer blockbuster about dinosaurs.

Is “Brontosaurus” Back? Not So Fast!

Donald Prothero discusses strengths and criticisms of a new study of diplodocine sauropod dinosaurs, and considers the puzzling picture it paints of the lives and relationships of these gigantic animals.

Poes, Trolls, and Dinosaur Deniers

Donald Prothero considers the Christians Against Dinosaurs website, and reflects on the problem described by "Poe’s Law": it is often impossible to tell the difference between parody and sincere extremism.

Book Review: The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs

Cover of The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs

Daniel Loxton reviews a colorful nonfiction dinosaur book for children.

Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet

Donald R. Prothero’s science books combine straightforward research with first-person narratives of discovery, injecting warmth and familiarity into a profession that desperately needs a more appealing approach to nonspecialists. Bringing his trademark style to an increasingly relevant subject of concern, Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals, especially contrasting the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs.

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