Smithsonian Dig It: Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Creatures

Corinna Bechko is a New York Times best-selling author who has been writing both comics and prose since her horror graphic novel Heathentown was published by Image/Shadowline in 2009. She has worked for numerous publishers including Marvel, DC, Dynamite, Dark Horse, and Sideshow on titles such as Star Wars: Legacy, Savage Hulk, Angel, Once Upon a Time, Court of the Dead: The Chronicle of the Underworld, and the Hugo nominated series Invisible Republic, which she co-writes with Gabriel Hardman. Her background is in zoology, and it usually shows. She lives in Los Angeles, where she spends all of her free time as a volunteer fossil preparator with the Dinosaur Institute at NHMLA.Brenda Scott Royce is a lifelong lover of beasts and books—and whenever possible her work combines the two. She’s served as editor of Zoo View, the award-winning magazine of the Los Angeles Zoo, for more than a decade. Her children’s books include two titles in the ASPCA’s Pet Rescue Club series— Champion’s New Shoes and Bailey the Wonder Dog. Her award-winning comedic novels Monkey Love and Monkey Star chronicle the misadventures of Holly Heckerling, a stand-up comedienne who befriends a monkey while juggling career and romantic entanglements. Brenda likes to say that she majored in monkeys in college (she earned a bachelor’s degree in primatology and anthropology from California State University, Fullerton) and that some of her best friends are chimpanzees (she worked as a chimp keeper at a wildlife sanctuary). She lives in Glendora, California.Franco Tempesta was born in Milan, Italy. Since he was a child, he loved drawing animals, dinosaurs, and dragons. Specializing in naturalistic illustration, in the last ten years he has focused his attention on the realization of realistic images of dinosaurs and primitive mammals. He has collaborated with national and foreign publishers, such as Smithsonian, National Geographic, Random House, Firecrest Publishing, Geoworld, and important advertising agencies of Italy. Since 1990, he has been a member of the Italian Illustrators Association. In April 2014, the Museum of Paleontology of Naples hosted a permanent exhibition dedicated to his illustrations of dinosaurs. Franco Tempesta loves nature, the sea, diving, and traveling.