Jurassic Park in the Arctic 70 Million Years Ago

In the Jurassic Park movies, dinosaurs usually live in a hot and humid habitat filled with verdant greenery. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that the Arctic might be the real Jurassic Park where dinosaurs live in the chiller climates.

For instance, the study entitled "Nesting at extreme polar latitudes by non-avian dinosaurs" published in Current Biology contradicts the idea of dinosaur habitats presented in the Jurassic Park movies. It suggests that dinosaurs lived all year round in Northern Alaska, where they endure the freezing winters and months of darkness.

This also means that dinosaurs may not be as cold-blooded as previously thought.

Frost-Loving Dinosaurs

It was in the 1950s when scientists first discovered the first fossilized remains of frost-loving dinosaurs in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Paleontologists before believed that these conditions would have been too severe for the reptiles to survive.

According to Popular Science, researchers formulated two hypotheses as to how dinosaurs would have survived back then. First, they believe that dinosaurs spent their whole lives in the tundra. Second, they think that herbivorous dinosaurs have migrated to the north temperatures warmed and where greens sprouted through the thawing ground. Carnivorous dinosaurs then followed their prey.

The team of researchers spent decades uncovering the evidence of frost-loving dinosaurs in Northern Alaska, a fossil-rich site known as the Cretaceous Price Creek Formation (PCF). It is said to be the best location to study polar dinosaurs.

They would pitch camp along the banks in rural Alaska. Patrick Druckenmiller, lead author, and director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, described their experience in unearthing the mystery of polar dinosaurs as a labor of love as he and his term spends many nights in the wet, muddy, and freezing sea breeze site.

Finding Fossils of Baby Dinosaurs

According to NHPR, a key piece of evidence in the research is finding the bones and teeth of baby dinos that date back from 70 million years ago. They found these fossils in the banks of the Colville River using dental tools. Some bones of dinosaur species they found were of those baby Tyrannosaurs, duck-billed dinosaurs like hadrosaurids and Triceratops.

The team believes that these dinosaurs might be year-round residents of the Arctic, given the incubation period of dinosaur eggs that last from three to six months in some species.

They found over 100 bones and teeth of baby dinos that could fit on the head of a pin. They laboriously pick through it under the microscope for hundreds to thousands of hours.

The study also supports the idea that some dinosaurs can regulate their body temperature, like mammals. Although this also leaves more questions to the researchers.

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