Peter P. Flaig

Description of Two Partial Troodon Braincases from the Prince Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), North Slope Alaska

Two partial theropod braincases recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation confirm the presence of Troodon formosus in Alaska. Characters that distinguish one specimen as Troodon formosus include; a very strongly developed sagittal crest on fused parietals, details of pneumatic spaces within the skull bones, and the size and location of the nervous and venous foramina. The second specimen has the distinct lateral depression diagnostic of a troodontid braincase. The recovery of these specimens, coupled with the absence of non-dental material from other small theropod taxa in these deposits, is significant. It corroborates the conclusion based on dental remains that T. formosus was the most abundant theropod in northern Alaska, thus supporting the model of the adaptability of this taxon to the highly seasonal, low-light conditions that existed in the region during the Late Cretaceous.

Permian polar forests: deciduousness and environmental variation.

Forests are expected to expand into northern polar latitudes in the next century. However, the impact of forests at high latitudes on climate and terrestrial biogeochemical cycling is poorly understood because such forests cannot be studied in the modern. This study presents forestry and geochemical analyses of three in situ fossil forests from Late Permian strata of Antarctica, which grew at polar latitudes. Stem size measurements and stump spacing measurements indicate significant differences in forest density and canopy structure that are related to the local depositional setting. For forests closest to fluvial systems, tree density appears to decrease as the forests mature, which is the opposite trend of self-thinning observed in modern forests. We speculate that a combination of tree mortality and high disturbance created low-density mature forests without understory vegetation near Late Permian river systems. Stable carbon isotopes measured from permineralized wood in these forests demonstrate two important points: (i) recently developed techniques of high-resolution carbon isotope studies of wood and mummified wood can be applied to permineralized wood, for which much of the original organic matter has been lost and (ii) that the fossil trees maintained a deciduous habit at polar latitudes during the Late Permian. The combination of paleobotanical, sedimentologic, and paleoforestry techniques provides an unrivaled examination of the function of polar forests in deep time; and the carbon isotope geochemistry supplements this work with subannual records of carbon fixation that allows for the quantitative analysis of deciduous versus evergreen habits and environmental parameters, for example, relative humidity.

DINOSAUR-BEARING HYPERCONCENTRATED FLOWS OF CRETACEOUS ARCTIC ALASKA: RECURRING CATASTROPHIC EVENT BEDS ON A DISTAL PALEOPOLAR COASTAL PLAIN

ABSTRACT The Cretaceous coastal plain of Arctic Alaska contains the richest concentration of high-latitude dinosaurs on Earth. Three bonebeds (Liscomb, Byers, Sling Point) are found in paleopolar (82°–85° N) coastal-plain deposits of the Prince Creek Formation on Alaskas North Slope. 40Ar/39Ar analysis of a tuff below the oldest bonebed (Sling Point) returned an age of 69.2 ± 0.5 Ma indicating a maximum early Maastrichtian age for these bonebeds. Bonebeds are overwhelmingly dominated by partially articulated to associated late-stage juvenile Edmontosaurus sp. Bone is rarely found in channels; instead high-density accumulations are preserved on floodplains in laterally extensive, muddy alluvium. Bone size grading is vertically nonuniform and most bones are in hydraulic disequilibrium with the surrounding clay-rich matrix. Bones exhibit little evidence of rounding, weathering, predation, or trampling, suggesting short-distance transport and rapid burial. Because these bonebeds are unlike typical debris-flow or streamflow deposits, the mechanism for bonebed emplacement remained poorly understood. All bonebeds contain a current-rippled siltstone containing the largest bone overlain by a distinctive mudstone encasing smaller bones, bone fragments, and subparallel-aligned plant fragments that appear “frozen in flow” within the muddy matrix. We recognize that these bonebeds exhibit a recurring facies pairing and bipartite division of flow consistent with deposition by fine-grained viscous hyperconcentrated flows. We suggest that exceptional discharge events entrained mud and ash stored on point bars and floodplains, increasing suspended-sediment concentrations in rivers and generating erosive hyperconcentrated flows that transported the remains of scores of juvenile dinosaurs onto floodplains adjacent to distributary channels.

Use of multiple oxygen isotope proxies for elucidating Arctic Cretaceous palaeo-hydrology

Abstract Stable oxygen isotope analysis of siderite and dinosaur tooth enamel phosphate from the Campanian–Maastrichtian Prince Creek Formation, Alaska, USA, are analysed to determine the palaeohydrology of the ancient Colville Basin north of the Ancestral Brooks Range. δ18O of freshwater siderites relative to V-PDB ranges between −14.86 and −16.21‰. Dinosaur tooth enamel δ18O from three different sites (Kikak–Tegoseak, Pediomys Point, Liscomb) range between +3.9‰ and +10.2.0‰. δ18Ometeoric water are calculated from δ18Osiderite that formed at seasonal temperatures ranging from −2 to 14.5 °C, with a mean annual temperature of 6.3 °C. At 6.3 °C, the δ18Ow calculated from siderite ranged between −22.23 and −20.89‰ V-SMOW. Ingested water compositions are estimated from dinosaur teeth assuming body temperatures of 37 °C and local relative humidity of 77.5%, resulting in values ranging from −28.7 to −20.4‰ V-SMOW, suggesting consumption of meteoric water and orographically depleted runoff from the Brooks Range. The ranges in calculated δ18Ometeoric water are compatible between the two proxies, and are mutually corroborating evidence of extremely 18O-depleted precipitation at high latitudes during the Late Cretaceous relative to those generated using general circulation models. This depletion is proposed to result from increased rainout effects from an intensified hydrological cycle, which probably played a role in sustaining polar warmth. Supplementary material: Parameters used for generation of equations compared to Kohn (1996) can be found at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18642

A Paleopolar Dinosaur Track Site in the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Prince Creek Formation of Arctic Alaska: Track Characteristics and Probable Trackmakers

ABSTRACT For the first time a dinosaur track site is identified in Maastrichtian paleopolar coastal plain deposits of the Prince Creek Formation (PCF) along the Colville River, North Slope of Alaska. Tracks were made and preserved by trampling of an ash-covered swamp margin, subsequent filling of tracks with alluvium from nearby rivers, and modification of sediments by pedogensis. Tracks are grouped into three classes based on track width and depth, with the largest tracks (>800 mm wide) recording overstepping by multiple individuals. As no bedding plane views of the tracks are present, the true shapes of the tracks were not available and, thus, a high probability of identification is not achievable. The tracks can be interpreted, however, using hypothetical-deductive reasoning by integrating paleontological and ichnological data from local and regional outcrops. The tracks likely represent the presence of hadrosaurs based on the overwhelming percentage of hadrosaur fossils that comprise nearby bonebeds, dominated by juvenile hadrosaurs (∼ 99%); to date no adult hadrosaur bone has been documented in the PCF. This interpretation is also supported by comparison of PCF hadrosaur track dimensions to exquisitely preserved (three-dimensional tracks with skin impressions) trackways of the coeval Cantwell Formation in Denali National Park (DENA), central Alaska. PCF track size dimensions, in comparison to DENA tracks, also represent a series of growth stages including both juvenile and adult hadrosaurs, and indicate that multiple generations and sizes of individuals lived and traveled together on the Arctic Alaska coastal plain. This is the first evidence for adult hadrosaurs in the PCF. This track site also preserves the highest latitude Maastrichtian footprints known.