By Tim Binnall
Adding a fascinating insight into our understanding of dinosaurs, researchers say that a slew of fossils found in Alaska seemingly indicate that some of the creatures had lived in the Arctic. The revelatory remains reportedly consist of hundreds of tiny teeth and bones which once belonged to dinosaurs that were either poised to hatch from their eggs or had just recently been born. Recovered over the course of a decade from the Prince Creek Formation in Alaska, the nature of the fossils left researchers stunned as they would appear to upend the previously held belief that the creatures had only passed through the region and, instead, suggest that they actually resided there.
"Given long incubation periods, small hatching sizes, and the short Arctic summer," paleontologist Gregory Erickson explained, "it is very unlikely the dinosaurs were migrating." Remarkably, scientists studying the fossils identified seven different species among the remains, including the famed tyrannosaur. Based on the dating of the rocks where the fossils were found, it believed that the creatures called the area their home around 70 million years ago. Although the climate of the region was not quite as harsh as it is today, conditions in the location at the time were unlike the environment one usually imagines when picturing dinosaurs roaming the Earth.
To that end, researchers note that the area would have been subjected to a staggering four months of continuous darkness during the winter season and the average daily temperature would have been around 43 degrees Fahrenheit. In a paper outlining the findings of the study, the team that unearthed and examined the fossils observed that "the dinosaurs, if winter residents, endured freezing winter conditions with occasional snowfall." How the presumably cold-blooded creatures could have survived such conditions is up for debate, but the researchers theorized that some may have hibernated while others could have relied on feathers for warmth.