Mark Mancini is a freelance writer currently based in New Jersey. Over the years, he’s covered every subject from classic horror movies to Abe Lincoln's favorite jokes. He is particularly fond of paleontology and has been reporting on new developments in this field since 2013. When Mark's not at his writing desk, you can usually find him on stage somewhere because he loves to get involved with community theater. And if you ever feel like trading puns for a few hours, he's your guy.
Recent Contributions
A hybrid cross between a small Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat, the Bengal cat will keep you busy with its intelligence and active personality. It may even shower with you.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
What do you get when you mix a domestic cat with a wild African serval cat? You get a Savannah cat, which turns out to be a very beautiful but very controversial kitty.
By Mark Mancini & Mitch Ryan
While you may not want to encounter one on a hike, there's no denying that snakes are magnificent creatures - no matter how big or small they are. But when it comes to the biggest snakes in the world, nature truly knows no bounds.
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Pit vipers also carry venom in twin glands behind their eyes, delivered through movable fangs that can be folded up against the roof of their mouth.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
There are more than 50 species of snakes that live in the seas. Some are super venomous and they can zip through the water with ease.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
Often confused with the venomous coral snake, which advertises its toxicity through bright bands of color, the milk snake is harmless to humans.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
These snakes are some of the best reptilian actors you'll ever meet, but don't let the act fool you.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
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To some, the thought of snakes flying through the air is the scariest thought imaginable, but, as we'll explain, flying snakes don't actually fly, they "fall with style."
By Mark Mancini
Despite their name, rat snakes don't eat just rodents. This huge family of snakes, which lives on every continent except Antarctica, also eats lizards and amphibians.
By Mark Mancini & Zach Taras
These modern rat snakes have an affinity for barns (and the rodents that live in them). But the myriad of colors makes them a reptile hobbyist's dream.
By Mark Mancini
Constantly compared to the Tyrannosaurus rex, the Giganotosaurus was one of a handful of dinosaurs that rivaled, or possibly exceeded, the creature in size.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
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History says Ivar the Boneless was a ruthless Viking warrior. But why the name boneless? Was he truly disabled, or was there a another more sinister reason for the nickname?
By Mark Mancini
Spiders don't have wings, so technically can't fly. But some arachnids can soar through the air with the greatest of ease.
By Mark Mancini & Talon Homer
That's right - daddy longlegs isn't an actual kind of spider, but a colloquial name that's been applied to a wide range of spiders and non-spiders, insects and non-insects.
By Mark Mancini
You can find the distance between two points by using the distance formula. It's an application of the Pythagorean theorem. Remember that from high school algebra?
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Many people get speed and velocity confused. It's no surprise because the terms are often used interchangeably. But they're not quite the same thing. So how do you find the velocity of an object?
By Mark Mancini
The 1964 discovery of Deinonychus in southern Montana was groundbreaking for many reasons, mostly because it helped prove that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.
By Mark Mancini
Utahraptors lived around 135 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period. So what does salt have to do with these massive dinosaurs whose fossils were first discovered in 1975?
By Mark Mancini
The villainous dinosaur from 'Jurassic Park' probably never had an affinity for water.
By Mark Mancini
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Triceratops — which literally means "three-horned face" — is one of the most spectacular and well-known of all dinosaurs. It shared the Cretaceous landscape with, and probably was preyed upon by, Tyrannosaurus rex.
By Mark Mancini
The green iguana isn't native to the Sunshine State. So how did this invasive lizard get there and become the state's menace to society?
By Mark Mancini
The Velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" were roughly the size of humans. In reality, they were about the size of an average turkey.
By Mark Mancini
Stegosaurus, an herbivorous dinosaur from 149 million years ago, walked on four legs, had a long, beak-tipped skull, a row of spikes adorning its tail and a pea-sized brain.
By Mark Mancini
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Tyrannosaurus rex was a giant predator that roamed the earth, so why did it have such tiny arms?
By Mark Mancini
Brachiosaurus has been portrayed in popular culture many times, but the representations of this mysterious dinosaur are largely based on another massive dino called Giraffatitan brancai.
By Mark Mancini