New hadrosaur species discovered on Alaska's North Slope
Oct 1, 2015 8:41:54 GMT -6
Nugget, dirkgently, and 9 more like this
Post by 727sky on Oct 1, 2015 8:41:54 GMT -6
While it is true the arctic was warmer 68 million years ago but it was not ice free plus the the old three months of darkness with the sun below the horizon was supposedly still the same. This new species of Hadrosaur just goes to show where there is food and a will creatures will adapt.
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoaf-nhs092115.php
Researchers working with specimens at the University of Alaska Museum of the North have described a new species of hadrosaur, a type of duck-billed dinosaur that once roamed the North Slope of Alaska in herds, living in darkness for months at a time and probably experiencing snow. Ugrunaaluk (oo-GREW-na-luck) kuukpikensis (KOOK-pik-en-sis) grew up to 30 feet long and was a superb chewer with hundreds of individual teeth well-suited for eating coarse vegetation.
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoaf-nhs092115.php
Druckenmiller and Erickson have previously published documentation suggesting that during this time period, a distinct, polar fauna existed in what is now northern Alaska. At the time, Arctic Alaska was covered in a polar forest because the climate was much warmer. Since it was so far north, the dinosaurs had to contend with months of winter darkness and snow. "The finding of dinosaurs this far north challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur's physiology," Erickson said. "It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?"
