Thousands of dinosaur tracks found in Alaska
1 Oct 2013 6:07 PM GMT
Thousands of fossilised dinosaur footprints have been discovered along the rocky banks of Alaska’s Yukon River. The large and small footprints may have just scratched the surface of a major new dinosaur site nearly inside the Arctic Circle.
‘There aren’t many places left in the world where paleontologists can just go out and find thousands of dinosaur footprints. This is the kind of discovery you would have expected in the Lower 48 a hundred years ago,’ said Pat Druckenmiller from University of Alaska Museum of the North.
In July 2013, researchers set off in boats for a 805-km journey down the Tanana and Yukon rivers. Co-discoverer Kevin May, operations manager at Museum of the North, says the goal was to explore as many beaches as possible for evidence of dinosaurs.
They found much more than they expected, dinosaur footprints big and small, from both meat and plant-eaters. ‘We found dinosaur footprints by the scores on literally every outcrop we stopped at,’ Paul McCarthy from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
‘There aren’t many places left in the world where paleontologists can just go out and find thousands of dinosaur footprints. This is the kind of discovery you would have expected in the Lower 48 a hundred years ago,’ said Pat Druckenmiller from University of Alaska Museum of the North.
In July 2013, researchers set off in boats for a 805-km journey down the Tanana and Yukon rivers. Co-discoverer Kevin May, operations manager at Museum of the North, says the goal was to explore as many beaches as possible for evidence of dinosaurs.
They found much more than they expected, dinosaur footprints big and small, from both meat and plant-eaters. ‘We found dinosaur footprints by the scores on literally every outcrop we stopped at,’ Paul McCarthy from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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