The recovery of abundant dinosaur fossils from high paleolatitudes of northern Alaska has raised some hard questions in relation to any available model of dinosaur physiology. To explain the occurrence of hadrosaurs at high ancient latitudes, a model involving long-distance migration analogous to that of the modern caribou has been proposed. The model calls for seasonal movements over great latitudinal distances by these Cretaceous hadrosaurs. This model is reassessed in terms of the growth, body sizes, and inferred physiological ecology of the hadrosaurs and the caribou. Histological data suggest that juvenile hadrosaurs obtained from northern Alaska were greater than 1 year in age. Comparison of the relative sizes of juvenile and adult hadrosaurs with juvenile and adult caribou suggests, based on qualitative energetics, that the juvenile hadrosaurs were too small to participate in long-distance migration. The "hadrosaurs as caribou" model provides clues to the feeding ecology of North Slope hadrosaurs, if they are reinterpreted as year-round residents of high latitudes. However, it does not constitute a satisfactory basis on which to infer long-distance seasonal migrations by these animals.
![Sample our Environment & Agriculture journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5934/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Agriculture.jpg"})
Reprints and Corporate Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:
Academic Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:
If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.
Related Research Data
Herd size, distribution, harvest, management issues, and research priorities relevant to caribou herds in Alaska
Source:
Septentrio Academic Publishing
Arctic Life of Birds and Mammals
Source:
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Paleoecological implications of Alaskan terrestrial vertebrate fauna in latest Cretaceous time at high paleolatitudes
Source:
Geological Society of America
Physiological, migratorial, climatological, geophysical, survival, and evolutionary implications of Cretaceous polar dinosaurs
Source:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Long bone histology of the hadrosaurid dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum: growth dynamics and physiology based on an ontogenetic series of skeletal elements
Source:
Informa UK Limited
A comparison between dinosaur footprints from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK, and Shell, Wyoming, USA
Source:
Geological Society Publishing House
Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs.
Source:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Hadrosaurs Were Perennial Polar Residents
Source:
Wiley
Hadrosaurian Dinosaurs of North America
Source:
Geological Society of America
A Consideration of the Trophic Dynamics of a Late Cretaceous Large-Dinosaur Community (Oldman Formation)
Source:
Wiley
Hadrosaurid migration: inferences based on stable isotope comparisons among Late Cretaceous dinosaur localities
Source:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Albian-Paleocene flora of the north pacific: Systematic composition, palaeofloristics and phytostratigraphy
Source:
Pleiades Publishing Ltd
Revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the African, Eurasian, North American and Indian Plates, and true polar wander since 200 Ma
Source:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils from the North Slope of Alaska and implications for dinosaur ecology
Source:
Society for Sedimentary Geology
Why is Animal Size so Important?
Source:
Cambridge University Press
THEROPOD TEETH FROM THE PRINCE CREEK FORMATION (CRETACEOUS) OF NORTHERN ALASKA, WITH SPECULATIONS ON ARCTIC DINOSAUR PALEOECOLOGY
Source:
Informa UK Limited
19 – Tundra Grazing Systems and Climatic Change
Source:
Elsevier
The last polar dinosaurs: high diversity of latest Cretaceous arctic dinosaurs in Russia.
Source:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Linking provided by
