Discovering Dinosaurs: About

Discovering Dinosaurs, presented by Encyclopædia Britannica, is an online expedition into our paleontological past and an itinerary for its future. Through a series of thoughtful essays, it explores how our conception of dinosaurs has evolved in the 150 years since the creatures were first "discovered." We conclude that, despite 66 million years of extinction, dinosaurs continue to change as we do, because they exist as much in our science and imagination as they do deep within the ground, in scattered fossil remnants. And, as science marches on, the debate continues to this day about what we mean when we say "dinosaur." Are they related to birds or reptiles? Killed off by asteroids or disease? Warm-blooded or cold-blooded?

Beautifully illustrated with animations, artwork, and archive photography, Discovering Dinosaurs traces dinosaur hunters and their discoveries across four main themes:

Environment--how we imagine where dinosaurs lived and, ultimately, how they died
Anatomy--an exploration of the evolutionary connection between long-dead dinosaurs and modern-day birds
Behavior--our search for the way dinosaurs lived, bred, and socialized
Physiology--a look at the age-old question: were they warm-blooded or cold-blooded?

An easy-to-use navigational grid allows visitors to investigate these themes through four distinct time periods:

1820-1860
1860-1910
1910-1960
1960-present

Or you can explore all four themes across one time period. The site grid allows you to enter the spotlight at any point, while the arrow navigation on each page lets you move forward and backward in time or across themes.

You'll learn how the cutting edge of science has changed over the past century and a half, and on every page of Discovering Dinosaurs, the actual artwork of the time comes alive as evolving animations show how dinosaurs were perceived from one era to the next. As an added feature of this Britannica Spotlight, we present selected film clips from the popular IMAX motion picture T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous. See how the most current depictions of dinosaurs from IMAX compare with historical images from our site.

Other features of the site are "On the Web," for exploring sites recommended by our Internet Guide editors, as well as "Recommended Reading," for locating the best print materials.