A new metal money of duck - billed dinosaur was discovered in a remote part of northerly Alaska . CalledUgrunaaluk kuukpikensis , it ’s the northernmost dinosaur discovered thus far , and researchers recall it was a cold - adapted plant - feeder that thrived in the wintry darkness of the polar region . It may have even seen snow .
" The determination of dinosaurs this far north challenges everything we intend about a dinosaur ’s physiology , " Florida State University’sGreg Ericksonsaid in astatement . " It make this natural question . How did they survive up here ? "
More than 9,000 bones from various animals were unearthed along the Colville River in the Prince Creek Formation , 6,000 of which were from hadrosaurus ( duck - billed dinosaur ) . Most of the fossils were compile from a single John Rock stratum called the Liscomb Bonebed , which was deposit on a coastal alluvion plain about 69.2 million years ago . During the Late Cretaceous , the site was located well above the paleo - Arctic Circle , and that entail the dinosaur were living as far north as earth was known to have subsist . Arctic Alaska at the time was covered with trees , and the median temperature was about 5 - 6 point Celsius ( 42 - 43 degrees Fahrenheit ) , which is milder than nowadays . But because they were so far north , the dinosaurs in all probability spend the winter months – when it miss down to 2 degree Celsius ( 36 degree Fahrenheit ) – live in darkness .
Ugrunaalukhad scales , plates on its back , a broad neb for grazing low - lie plant , tooth for grinding , and it may have walk on two feet . Researchers initially thought the skeletal remains belonged to Edmontosaurus , another duck’s egg - bill dinosaur that populate rough 70 million years ago in Montana , South Dakota , and Alberta , Canada . However , by take apart the bone structure , Hirotsugu Morifrom the University of Alaska Fairbanks ( UAF ) and colleagues revealed that sure feature of speech of the skull – particularly around the lip – were n’t present in any known duck’s egg - charge species .
After working with Alaskan Iñupiaq voice communication speakers , the team arrived at the nameUgrunaaluk kuukpikensis , which mean “ ancient grazer ” of the Colville River . The piece of work was publish inActa Palaeontologica Polonicathis hebdomad .
One of the thing that made describe this unexampled mintage difficult at first – besides the polar , remote location that call for bush plane , inflatable boats , and rappel down a cliff typeface – is how most of the fossils came from younger or juvenile dinosaurs . Likely a herd of juvenile was killed suddenly . " A challenge of this report was figuring out if the deviation with other duck-billed dinosaur was just because they were young , or if they were really a different species,“saidUAF’sPatrick Druckenmiller . " fortuitously , we also had bones from older animals that helped us realizeUgrunaalukwas a totally fresh animal . " The adults were about 9 meters ( 30 feet ) long .
The researchers judge that the fossil - racy area carry at least 13 different dinosaur species . " Alaska is basically the last frontier,“Erickson adds . " It ’s virtually unexplored in term of vertebrate palaeontology . So , we remember we ’re going to find a slew of new species . "
