The ghosts of the dinosaurs we may never discover
Deserts like Arches National Park might have been rich with dinosaur diversity, but poor at preserving long-dead fossils. Meryl Rowin for Popular Science Everything we’ve learned about dinosaurs essentially comes from fossils. But million-year-old rocks and bones have left a few hulking gaps in our understanding of the prehistoric world. Dinosaur Mysteries digs into the more secretive side of the “terrible lizards,” and all the questions that keep paleontologists up at night. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE of history’s greatest fossil rush. Forget about the 19th-century Bone Wars or the early 20th-century rise of US museums—paleontologists today are finding more dinosaurs faster than before. On average, they name a new nonavian dinosaur species every two weeks. Some of this year’s fresh arrivals include the long-necked herbivore Chucarosaurus, the duckbill Malefica, and the dome-headed Platytholus. Despite...