Science and discoveries: Duck-billed dinosaur unearthed in Alaska, researchers say
Alaska and Florida researchers have come upon fossils of a unique plant-eating dinosaur way up in the northern area of Alaska, and the researchers say the discovery just may change the way scientists and the world views dinosaur physiology.
According to the Associated Press, the researchers concluded on a paper published Tuesday that the fossilized bones they found somewhere along the Colville River were that of a distinct species of hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that basically not linked to the hadrosaurs previously unearthed in Canada and Lower 48 states.
Since it has become the fourth species discovered to be unique to northern Alaska, it then creates a solid foundation for the theory saying there are indeed dinosaurs that adapted to the Arctic and lived 69 million years ago in temperatures that are far cooler than the tropical and equatorial temperatures that most people say dinosaurs live in.
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Professor of biological science at Florida State Gregory Erickson said, "Basically a lost world of dinosaurs that we didn't realize existed," adding that "It was certainly not like the Arctic today up there — probably in the 40s was the mean annual temperature. Probably a good analogy is thinking about British Columbia." This means the northern hadrosaurs would have suffered through months of winter and darkness and even snow, before they were able to adapt to the seasons.
Now that the lost dinosaurs have been identified, Erickson said the next step to getting to know the species better is to figure out how they survived despite the basic idea that science teaches about dinosaurs adapting to tropical temperatures.
The researchers said most of the fossils were discovered in the Liscomb Bone Bed, which is more than 300 miles northwest of Fairbanks and just a little more than 100 miles into the southern Arctic Ocean. The bed is named after geologist Robert Liscomb, who first found dinosaur bones way back 1961 in Alaska while doing map rounds for Shell Oil Co.
