Scientific American: Special Editions

Special Editions

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Dinosaurs and Other Monsters

From a purely self-interested standpoint, it's good that the dinosaurs and their ancient ilk are dead. Yet they live on in our imaginations and our intellectual pursuits, where they retain the power to puzzle, fascinate and startle us. How did they hunt (and what hunted them)? Were they orphans from birth, surviving on instinct and appetite alone, or did parents nurture them? Over millennia, how did their species evolve?

Studying the mineralized remains of prehistoric beasts from the comfortable distance of a few eons, scientists have learned a great deal about how these awesome creatures stalked and swam through the long-ago world. This special edition from Scientific American presents articles about some of the most exciting recent discoveries in the field of paleontology. We invite you to take an armchair safari into prehistory, to spend some quality time with the terrors of Earth's distant past. --The Editors

Rulers of the Jurassic Seas by Ryosuke Motani
Fish-shaped reptiles called ichthyosaurs reigned over the oceans for as long as dinosaurs roamed the land, but only recently have paleontologists discovered why these creatures were so successful

The Mammals That Conquered the Seas by Kate Wong
New fossils and DNA analyses elucidate the remarkable evolutionary history of whales

Breathing Life into Tyrannosaurus rex by Gregory M. Erickson
By analyzing previously overlooked fossils and by taking a second look at some old finds, paleontologists are providing the first glimpses of the actual behavior of the tyrannosaurs

Madagascar's Mesozoic Secrets by John J. Flynn and Andr� R. Wyss
The world's fourth-largest island divulges fossils that could revolutionize scientific views on the origins of dinosaurs and mammals

Dinosaurs of the Antarctic by Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich
Their excellent night vision and apparent warm blood raise a question: Could they have survived icehouse conditions at the end of the Cretaceous period?

Killer Kangaroos and Other Murderous Marsupials by Stephen Wroe
Australian mammals were not all as cute as koalas. Some were as ferocious as they were bizarre

Fossils of the Flaming Cliffs by Michael J. Novacek, Mark Norell, Malcolm C. McKenna and James Clark
Mongolia's Gobi Desert contains one of the richest assemblages of dinosaur remains ever found. Paleontologists are uncovering much of the region's history

Captured in Amber by David A. Grimaldi
The exquisitely preserved tissues of insects in amber reveal some genetic secrets of evolution

Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird? by Richard O. Prum and Alan H. Brush
Feathers originated and diversified in dinosaurs, before birds or flight evolved

The Terror Birds of South America by Larry G. Marshall
These huge, swift creatures were the dominant carnivores of the continent for millions of years, until competitors drove them into extinction

The Evolution of Life on Earth by Stephen Jay Gould
The history of life is not necessarily progressive; it is certainly not predictable. The earth's creatures have evolved through a series of contingent and fortuitous events