How Do Scientists Reconstruct What Dinosaurs Looked Like?

Is there a recipe for recreating a dinosaur's appearance? Experts reveal how they know what dinosaurs really looked like.

By Sofia Quaglia
Apr 27, 2023 1:00 PMJul 19, 2023 3:04 PM
Velociraptor and Zalambdalestes © Witton 2019 high res
A feathered Velociraptor pursues its prey during the Late Cretaceous period. (Credit: Mark Witton)

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Despite having roamed the planet millions of years ago, thanks to advances in technology, dinosaurs aren’t as inscrutable today as they once were.

And over the past decades, in addition to studying what they acted like, including their habits and diets, researchers have specialized in reconstructing and depicting what they looked like — all the way down to specific details like texture and color.

But how do scientists go about pinpointing these details for creatures that died 65 million years ago? It turns out, we actually know more about dinosaur looks than you might think.

What Did Dinosaurs Really Look Like?

Of course, there are dinosaurs we know a lot about and dinosaurs we know virtually nothing about — fitting for such a vast, diverse category of animals, and it's important to resist the urge to lump all dinosaurs together.

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