The
search for dinosaur material at Denali National Park and Preserve
has continued with great success in the 2006 field season, which
began in early June. Eighteen more trace fossil sites have been
located in the Igloo Canyon and Double Mountain vicinities of the
park. The majority of the finds have been theropods, (meat-eating
dinosaurs that walked on their hind legs), however several hadrosaur
footprints, popularly known as duck-billed dinosaurs, have also
been discovered. This discovery is very exciting as theropods are
thought to have preyed on hadrosaurs, and this new evidence provides
a beginning for understanding the ecosystem of Denali 70 million
years ago. Among the twenty total sites found so far in the park,
four different-sized theropod tracks have been found, and several
new bird tracks as well. The largest of the tracks is approximately
20 by 20 inches or 50 by 50 cm. The search for dinosaur evidence
has been ongoing for four years, and the recent finds are a welcome
reward. The number of tracks and the quality of preservation in
some specimens greatly exceed expectations. Some of the rock surfaces
are so littered with tracks and partial tracks that Dr. Tony Fiorillo
of the Dallas Museum of Natural History, and the principal investigator
on the project, has referred to them as “Cretaceous dance floors.”
Whereas most of this summer’s discoveries were made by trained geologists
and graduate students, some of the new finds took place during a
teacher workshop on dinosaurs offered through the Murie Science
and Learning Center in early July. The education course was specifically
designed to examine the dinosaur history of Denali. Photographs
and information about the class’ discoveries can be found at www.murieslc.org.
Additional discoveries are expected as the field portion of the
project continues, and as the information is examined by cooperating
investigators. Researchers were tantalized last year by the first
evidence of dinosaurs in Denali and Interior Alaska, when two dinosaur
footprints and multiple avian (bird) tracks were found at two different
locations in a type of sedimentary rock known as the Cantwell Formation.
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Author:Jane
Tranel
Last modified on: December 12, 2003
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