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11/22/2024 11:59:58 am

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New Dinosaur Unearthed In Alaska

New Dinosaur Unearthed in Alaska

According to a new research report, fossils of herbivorous dinosaur in Alaska have been unearthed.

A new research published in Ata Paleontologica Polonica confirms the presence of herbivorous dinosaur in Alaska. The animal was a duck-billed dinosaur that roamed in herds.

Researchers declared it to be a 30-feet long herbivorous dinosaur after a thorough investigation of the bones at the Coville River in northern Alaska known as the Prince Creek Formation. According to the researchers it was one of more than a dozen of species of dinosaurs that lived in the northern part.

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With the help of the speakers of Inupiaq, language of Alaska Inupiat Eskimos, research workers have named the creature Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis ( oo-GROO'-nah-luk KOOK'-pik-en-sis ) . The name means "ancient grazer" in Inupiaq.

The northern Alaska was probably a much more hospitable place with approximate temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit and was thought to be covered by forests.

"For at least 25 years, the fossils were lumped in with another hadrosaur, Edmontosaurus, a species well-known in Canada and the U.S., including Montana and South Dakota. The formal study of the Alaska dinosaur revealed differences in skull and mouth features that made it a different species," said Patrick Druckenmiller, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Alaska who helped find the fossils, in an interview for the Los Angeles Times.

CBS News reported, researchers believe The Prince Creek Formation is teeming with skeletons of at least 13 different species of dinosaur, which are different than those found at lower latitudes.

"When we think of dinosaurs, we think of them living in a tropical paradise, but for these dinosaurs, it was more like an Arctic paradise. It was probably comparable to what you would find in Juneau, Alaska, down in the panhandle of the state. It wasn't a warm winter, but it was much warmer than it is today," he said.

Small teams of paleontologists have toiled for 10 to 14 days to gather thousands of bones from the Prince Creek Formation, with around 6,000 bones only from Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis.

"It's the one we know better than any other," Druckenmiller said. "We have every bone in its body."

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