Guides
Straight answers to the questions children come up with after a cartoon or a lesson at school.
Why did dinosaurs go extinct?How an asteroid changed the climate and the food supply 66 million years ago, and why birds survived.
Are birds dinosaurs?Why scientists count birds as dinosaurs, what fossils tell us about feathers, and where Archaeopteryx fits into the story.
Why Pteranodon and Plesiosaurus are not dinosaursMeet the flying reptiles and sea reptiles that lived in the age of dinosaurs, and find out why they belong to groups of their own.
Did T. rex have feathers?Fossil skin impressions show that T. rex had scales. Find out what they prove, what is still uncertain, and how its feathered relatives help scientists.
How big was a real Velociraptor?The real Velociraptor was about two metres long, tail included, and far smaller than the film version. Discover its true size, feathers and curved claws.
How do fossils form?How burial and minerals can preserve bones, and why footprints, eggs and feather impressions count as fossils too.
Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous: when did dinosaurs live?A simple timeline of the three periods of the Mesozoic Era, with well-known dinosaurs to help you remember which came when.
Can we clone a dinosaur?Why scientists cannot yet clone a T. rex from a fossil or from a mosquito in amber, and why a preserved bone is not the same as preserved DNA.