Two hundred years ago, on February 20, 1824, William Buckland presented his findings on the "Megalosaurus, or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield" to the Geological Society of London, marking the first formal scientific description of a dinosaur. Since then, dinosaurs have not only dominated paleontological literature but also captured popular culture and the collective imagination, becoming icons of museum exhibits, documentaries, popular narrative, films, video games, theme parks, and more.

Guest Editors:

Marco Romano

Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma; marco.romano@uniroma1.it
 

Fabio Massimo Petti
MUSE - Museo delle Scienze di Trento, Corso del Lavoro e della Scienza 3, 38122 Trento, Italy; fabio.petti@socgeol.it
 

Filippo Bertozzo
Operational Directorate Earth and History of Life, Royal Belgian Inst. Nat. Sci., Brussels, Belgium; fbertozzo@naturalsciences.be
 

Key words:

Dinosauria, dinosaur paleobiology, ichnology, phylogeny, paleobiogeography, paleoart.
 
Possible topics:
 

Call for papers:

Over the past few decades, the study of dinosaurs, which reigned over the Mesozoic for more than 160 million years following one of the most severe mass extinctions in the Phanerozoic, has experienced a renaissance. This new wave of research has led to a significantly revised understanding of dinosaurs. Once thought of as sluggish, solitary "giant lizards", two centuries of study have revealed a very different picture: many species were agile and fast with high metabolic rates, exhibiting complex social behaviors, some of which have been evidenced by trackway analyses.
This special issue is designed to celebrate this iconic clade and to review the current biological understanding of dinosaurs. It explores ongoing debates, the various multidisciplinary approaches now applied to their study, unresolved questions, and potential directions for future research.
This special issue is dedicated to the memory of Martin Lockley, a pioneer who transformed the study of vertebrate footprints. Prior to his groundbreaking work in the 1980s, fossil tracks were often overlooked by paleontologists. Martin's passion, energy, and unparalleled contributions created the modern subdiscipline of vertebrate footprint ichnology. Over a 40-year career, he traveled to at least 26 countries, published nearly 1,000 scientific papers, and documented countless track sites. His legacy includes significant advancements in research, public education, and conservation, and his mentorship inspired a new generation of ichnologists worldwide. His passing is a profound loss to the field.

Timeline

Call for titles and authors: 20/11/2024
Call for full papers: 28/02/2025

Manuscript submission and preparation of the text

Please refer to the Instructions for Authors to prepare your manuscript.

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact Guest Editor Marco Romano (marco.romano@uniroma1.it).

To submit a manuscript for this special issue please use the journal's submission platform (ScholarOne Manuscripts^TM). To submit your manuscript, please create you account and in the homepage click on the Author Dashboard and start your submission.

In the cover letter please specify that the manuscript is submitted for the special issue "200 Years of Dinosaurs: state of the art and future directions".