The distribution of herbivorous dinosaurs in Alaska was influenced by precipitation more than temperature.
The distribution of hadrosaurids and ceratopsids was discussed in a finding published in the journal Geosciences.
If the climate turns warm and wet, the work can help scientists project what the region will look like in the future.
A research paper written by Anthony Fiorillo of Southern Methodist University in Texas was co-authored by Paul McCarthy, chair of the UAF Department of Geosciences. McCarthy has been studying the region for a long time.
McCarthy said that Earth was in a greenhouse state at that point in time, and it offers the potential to provide analogs to what we might see.
The rates of change are likely to have been completely different in the Cretaceous. We can look at the distribution of plants and animals.
McCarthy analyzed the depositional environments and ancient soils of three rock formations, including the Prince Creek Formation along the Colville River in northern Alaska.
According to the research paper, the three formations are close enough to each other to allow for a climate comparison. The rocks were deposited between 83 million to 66 million years ago.
Fossil soil has important information to offer through its preserved features, mineral composition and chemical makeup, but it is overshadowed by fossils and ancient footprints.
McCarthy said that they can look at features preserved in the fossil soil samples and relate them to modern soil types to get an idea of where they formed. Are we looking at a tropical rainforest or a temperate forest? Or grassland?
It contains clay minerals, organic matter and the iron-carbonate mineral siderite, all of which can be used to determine the composition of the local vegetation.
The distribution of Alaska's dinosaurs can be learned from that.
Scientists studying the three Alaska formations found a correlation between the amount of precipitation and the distribution of hadrosaurids and ceratopsids. The distribution of those two groups of dinosaurs was less correlated with temperature.
The duck-billed family of dinosaurs preferred climates that were wet. Adults were 30 feet in length and weighed about 3 tons. Their dominance over the ceratopsids increased in the more favorable climate.
The hadrosaurids, a family with beaks and horns, preferred a milder and drier climate, but never became dominant in percentage over the Ceratopsids in the three formations. The best known ceratopsid is Triceratops, which is 25 to 30 feet in length and 4.5 to 6 tons in weight.
Prior research that looked at dinosaur teeth from the Prince Creek Formation led to the finding of greater influence of precipitation than temperature. The work by McCarthy was included in the study.
According to the results of the dental study, hadrosaurid preferred the wetter regions of the landscape while ceratopsid preferred the drier regions.
The Hokkaido University Museum at Hokkaido University in Japan, and Marina B. Suarez of the University of Kansas are involved in the paper.
More information: Anthony R. Fiorillo et al, Cretaceous Dinosaurs across Alaska Show the Role of Paleoclimate in Structuring Ancient Large-Herbivore Populations, Geosciences (2022). DOI: 10.3390/geosciences12040161 Citation: Precipitation helped drive distribution of Alaska dinosaurs (2022, May 2) retrieved 2 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-precipitation-alaska-dinosaurs.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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