Platypterygius, meaning “flat fin”, was a genus of ichthyosaur which lived during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 115-95 million years ago. It was one of the last ichthyosaurs to exist before the entire group went extinct. Traditionally treated… Read More ›
During the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs ruled the land, but their flying cousins the pterosaurs ruled the sky. They first appeared during the late Triassic Period about 210 million years ago, and persisted until the reign of the reptiles came to… Read More ›
Acrocanthosaurus, meaning “high-spined lizard”, was a large 35 foot long meat-eating dinosaur which lived in North America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 115-110 million years ago. It is distinctive for the unusually tall neural spines on the… Read More ›
Leucichthyops vagans was a species of prehistoric salmonid fish which lived in what’s now western North America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 100 million years ago. The species was named in 1919 by Theodore D. A. Cockerell,… Read More ›
Erythrinolepis was a prehistoric freshwater fish which lived in western North America during the middle to late Cretaceous Period approximately 100-66 million years ago. The name Erythrinolepis was coined by the paleontologist Theodore D. A. Cockerell in 1919. The name… Read More ›
Depiction of rioters and police during the New York City draft riots of 1863. Harper’s Weekly (August 1, 1863). Public domain image, Wikimedia Commons.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Draft_Riots_-_Harpers_-_beating.jpg. Anyone who has basic knowledge of the American Civil War or who has seen the Martin… Read More ›
It’s well known, or at least it should be, that New York, and New York City specifically, were actively involved in the bartering of human chattel for two hundred years. It began with the first bold yet tremulous ventures of… Read More ›
NOTE: This article was originally published on August 3, 2023. It was substantially revised on February 3, 2026. Kepodactylus was a pterosaur which lived in western North America during the late Jurassic Period 155-152 million years ago. In 1992, a nearly-complete Stegosaurus skeleton… Read More ›
“Broadway, New York. From the Western Union Telegraph Building, looking North”. Hand-colored lithograph, published by Currier & Ives (1875). The New-York Historical Society. People have a certain conception of what the past was like. They like to think that things… Read More ›
Gigantoraptor was a massive 25-30 foot long oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaur which lived in eastern Asia (and possibly in North America) during the middle of the Cretaceous Period. The fossils of this enormous bird-like dinosaur, consisting of a partial skeleton, were… Read More ›
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 
