Hadrosaur double prints. Credit: Fiorillo et al, 2019
Posted on 11/03/2019 3:44:20 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Abundant dinosaur footprints in Alaska reveal that high-latitude hadrosaurs preferred tidally influenced habitats...
Dinosaur fossils are well-known from Alaska, most famously from areas like Denali National Park and the North Slope, but there are very few records of dinosaurs from the Alaskan Peninsula in the southwest part of the state. In this study, Fiorillo and colleagues document abundant dinosaur trackways from Aniakchak National Monument, around 670km southwest of Anchorage.
The trackways were preserved in the Chignik Formation, a series of coastal sediment deposits dating back to the Late Cretaceous Period around 66 million years ago. Survey work from 2001-2002 and 2016-2018 identified more than 75 trackway sites including dozens of dinosaur footprints. Based on the anatomy of the prints, the authors identified two footprints of armored dinosaurs, one of a large predatory tyrannosaur, and a few footprints attributable to two types of birds. The remaining 93% of the trackways belonged to hadrosaurs, highly successful herbivores which are typically the most common dinosaurs in high-latitude fossil ecosystems.
Previous research on skeletal dinosaur remains in northern Alaska has found that hadrosaurs were most abundant in coastal habitats... Fiorillo adds, "Our study shows us something about habitat preferences for some dinosaurs and also that duck-billed dinosaurs were incredibly abundant. Duck-billed dinosaurs were as commonplace as cows, though given we are working in Alaska, perhaps it is better to consider them the caribou of the Cretaceous."
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
his reads like the makings of a ‘Far Side’ cartoon.
Interesting! Thanks for posting.
My pleasure.
Penguisaurs?
Duck-billed dinosaurs were as commonplace as cows<<<
No kidding. All the usual suspects.
Any signs of frostbite on their toes? Didn’t think so.
:^)
:-)
Alaska was not in the same place 65 million years ago. It is missing. See link for map below.
Neat world map. Use dropdown menu in upper right for time to Jurassic.
Display options to stop the rotation. You can drag the globe display around.
http://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth/#170
I made a mistake in time. I was looking at 170 million years ago and Alaska was not there. However at 66 million it was.....
Thanks minnesota_bound.
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