Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: Colville River Grazer, Duck-Billed Hadrosaur

The 6,000+ Colville River grazer skeletal remains emerge as:

• few adults and many juveniles in north Alaska’s Prince Creek geological formation on the Brooks Range’s north side;
• one of four Alaska-endemic dinosaurs with Alaskacephale gangloffi (Roland Gangloff’s Alaskan headbanger), Nanuqsaurus hoglundi (Forrest Hoglund’s polar bear lizard), and Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum (Ross and Margot Perot’s thick-nosed lizard).

They furnish physical addresses of:

• 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) south of the Arctic Ocean;
• 300 miles (482.80 kilometers) north of Fairbanks.

They therefore get funereal honors with other remains preserved in the 2- to 3-foot-thick (0.61- to 0.91-meter-thick) Liscomb bonebed.

Their graveyard honors Robert L. Liscomb, Shell Oil Company geologist and mapper discovering in 1961 Alaska’s red-brown, uncrushed, undistorted, unmineralized dinosaur bones. 

Scientific procedure is dynamic because of its commitment to examination and re-examination, interpretation and re-interpretation. For example, scientists traditionally judge Alaska as inhospitable to dinosaur life cycles and natural histories because of:

• cold;
• snow;
• 24-7 darkness six months annually.

But they now know of temperatures 10°F (12°C) higher and vegetation arboreally denser than nowadays sufficing to support dinosaurs year-round 70,000,000 years ago. The scientific method indeed leads paleontologists and zoologists to re-examine in the 1980s two decades of Liscomb specimens crated and misidentified as mammalian.

It makes Alaskan history with the subsequent recognition of:

• Colville River grazer similarities to Edmontosaurus species of Alberta, Montana, South Dakota;
• hadrosaurid (thick lizard) predominance among dinosaur specimens;
• non-nomadic, permanent dinosaur presences. 

Eye, mouth and skull configurations necessitate separate genus/species status for Edmontosaurus annectens and Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis. Colville River grazers otherwise offer recognizably crestless duck-billed hadrosaurid behaviors and physiques of:

• Godzilla-like plate-covered spines;
• mega-chicken footprint-like tracks;
• 3-foot-long (0.91-meter-long) juvenile hip-heights;
• 9-foot-long (2.74-meter-long) juvenile head-body lengths;
• 30-foot-long (9.1-meter-long) mature head-tail lengths;
• 1,400-toothed mouths for coarse vegetation-eating;
• two- and four-legged mobility.

Niching in 41 to 43°F (5 to 6.11°C) annual mean-temperatured, snow-prone, wind-exposed eco-systems indeed provide culturally enriching, educationally entertaining, and geo-historically enthralling insights concerning:

• birds, fish, small mammals, and 12+ more unidentified dinosaur genera/species in the oil-rich North Slope;
• cold-blooded, sun-heated fauna (crocodiles, lizards, turtles) non-representation;
• night-visioned, warm-blooded polar dinosaurs like Antarctica’s Cryolophosaurus ellioti and southeastern-most Australia’s Dinosaur Cove species.

My special thanks to:

• Talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet;
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Associated Press. 22 September 2015. “Researchers Say New Dinosaur Found in Northern Alaska. The Digital Universe > News. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://universe.byu.edu/2015/09/22/researchers-say-new-dinosaur-found-in-northern-alaska/

Bednar, Chuck. 23 September 2015. “Scientists Identify New Hadrosaur Species Found in Alaska.” redOrbit > News > Science. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113409145/scientists-identify-new-hadrosaur-species-found-in-alaska-092315/

Campbell, Andy. 22 September 2015. Edited 24 September 2015. “A New Dinosaur Has Been Discovered – And He’s Hungry.” The Huffington Post > Huffpost Science. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-dinosaur-discovered-alaska_5601d290e4b00310edf90ff8

Casey, Michael. 22 September 2015. “New Dinosaur Species May Have Left Tracks in the Snow.” CBS News > SciTech. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-dinosaur-species-may-have-left-tracks-in-the-snow/

De Pastino, Blake, 25 September 2015. “Northernmost Dinosaur Discovered in ‘Lost World’ of Animal

Dunham, Mike. 22 September 2015. “Scientists Identify Dinosaur That Roamed the Alaska Arctic.” Alaska Dispatch News > Science. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ https://www.adn.com/article/20150922/ancient-grazer-identified-unique-alaska-dinosaur-species

Eberth, David A.; and Evans, David C. (Eds.). 2014. Hadrosaurs. Bloomington, IN, U.S.A.: Indiana University Press.

“Expedition Alaska: Dinosaurs.” University of Alaska Museum of the North > Exhibits & Digital Media > Special Exhibits. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ https://www.uaf.edu/museum/exhibits/special-exhibits/dinosaurs/

Fossils in Alaska.” Western Digs > Dinosaurs & Ancient Life > Dinosaurs. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://westerndigs.org/northernmost-dinosaur-discovered-in-lost-world-of-fossil-animals-in-alaska/

“Frozen, Unfossilized Dinosaur Bones.” Genesis Park > Exhibits > Evidence > Paleontological. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.genesispark.com/exhibits/evidence/paleontological/old-bone/frozen-unfossilized-dinosaur-bones/

Gallagher, Danny. 22 September 2015. “Newly Discovered Hadrosaur Dino Was One Serious, Cold-Winter Survivor.” CNET Magazine. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.cnet.com/news/new-hadrosaur-may-have-lived-in-cold-darkness/

Joling, Dan. 22 September 2015. “Fossils of New Duck-billed, Plant-eating Dinosaur Species Found in Alaska, Researchers Say.” U.S. News & World Report > News > Science. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2015/09/22/researchers-say-new-dinosaur-found-in-northern-alaska

Mori, Hirotsugu; Druckenmiller, Patrick S.; and Erickson, Gregory M. 22 September 2015. “A New Arctic Hadrosaurid from the Prince Creek Formation (Lower Maastrichtian) of Northern Alaska.” Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi: 10.4202/app.00152.2015

Taipan. 23 September 2015. “Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis.” Carnivoraform > Carnivora > Zoology > Dinnosaruai > Dinosauria Species Profiles. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://carnivoraforum.com/topic/10365945/1/

“Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Alaska.” Sci-News > Paleontology > Science > September 22, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015. Available @ http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-ugrunaaluk-kuukpikensis-duck-billed-dinosaur-03259.html

Winsor, Morgan. 22 September 2015. “What is Ubrunaaluk Kuukpikensis? New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Alaska Thrived in Polar Climate, Researchers Say.” International Business Times > Technology > Science. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.ibtimes.com/what-ugrunaaluk-kuukpikensis-new-dinosaur-species-discovered-alaska-thrived-polar-2109016