Cargando…

Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs

While there are now numerous records of dinosaurs from Cretaceous rocks around the state of Alaska, very few fossil records of terrestrial vertebrates are known from the Mesozoic rocks of the southwestern part of the state. Here we report the new discovery of extensive occurrences of dinosaur tracks...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fiorillo, Anthony R., Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu, McCarthy, Paul J., Tanaka, Tomonori, Tykoski, Ronald S., Lee, Yuong-Nam, Takasaki, Ryuji, Yoshida, Junki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31665132
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223471
_version_ 1783464072384086016
author Fiorillo, Anthony R.
Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu
McCarthy, Paul J.
Tanaka, Tomonori
Tykoski, Ronald S.
Lee, Yuong-Nam
Takasaki, Ryuji
Yoshida, Junki
author_facet Fiorillo, Anthony R.
Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu
McCarthy, Paul J.
Tanaka, Tomonori
Tykoski, Ronald S.
Lee, Yuong-Nam
Takasaki, Ryuji
Yoshida, Junki
author_sort Fiorillo, Anthony R.
collection PubMed
description While there are now numerous records of dinosaurs from Cretaceous rocks around the state of Alaska, very few fossil records of terrestrial vertebrates are known from the Mesozoic rocks of the southwestern part of the state. Here we report the new discovery of extensive occurrences of dinosaur tracks from Aniakchak National Monument of the Alaska Peninsula. These tracks are in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Chignik Formation, a cyclic sequence of rocks, approximately 500–600 m thick, representing shallow marine to nearshore marine environments in the lower part and continental alluvial coastal plain environments in the upper part of the section. These rocks are part of the Peninsular Terrane and paleomagnetic reconstructions based on the volcanic rocks of this terrane suggest that the Chignik Formation was deposited at approximately its current latitude which is almost 57° N. Recent field work in Aniakchak National Monument has revealed over 75 new track sites, dramatically increasing the dinosaur record from the Alaska Peninsula. Most of the combined record of tracks can be attributed to hadrosaurs, the plant-eating duck-billed dinosaurs. Tracks range in size from those made by full-grown adults to juveniles. Other tracks can be attributed to armored dinosaurs, meat-eating dinosaurs, and two kinds of fossil birds. The track size of the predatory dinosaur suggests a body approximately 6–7 m long, about the estimated size of the North Slope tyrannosaurid Nanuqsaurus. The larger bird tracks resemble Magnoavipes denaliensis previously described from Denali National Park, while the smaller bird tracks were made by a bird about the size of a modern Willet. Previous interdisciplinary sedimentologic and paleontologic work in the correlative and well-known dinosaur bonebeds of the Prince Creek Formation 1400km-1500km further north in Alaska suggested that high-latitude hadrosaurs preferred distal coastal plain or lower delta plain habitats. The ichnological record being uncovered in the Chignik Formation of southwestern Alaska is showing that the hadrosaur tracks here were also made in distal coastal and delta plain conditions. This similarity may corroborate the habitat preference model for Cretaceous high-latitude dinosaurs proposed for the data gathered from the Prince Creek Formation, and may indicate that at least Beringian hadrosaurids had similar habitat preferences regardless of latitude.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6821036
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-68210362019-11-01 Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs Fiorillo, Anthony R. Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu McCarthy, Paul J. Tanaka, Tomonori Tykoski, Ronald S. Lee, Yuong-Nam Takasaki, Ryuji Yoshida, Junki PLoS One Research Article While there are now numerous records of dinosaurs from Cretaceous rocks around the state of Alaska, very few fossil records of terrestrial vertebrates are known from the Mesozoic rocks of the southwestern part of the state. Here we report the new discovery of extensive occurrences of dinosaur tracks from Aniakchak National Monument of the Alaska Peninsula. These tracks are in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Chignik Formation, a cyclic sequence of rocks, approximately 500–600 m thick, representing shallow marine to nearshore marine environments in the lower part and continental alluvial coastal plain environments in the upper part of the section. These rocks are part of the Peninsular Terrane and paleomagnetic reconstructions based on the volcanic rocks of this terrane suggest that the Chignik Formation was deposited at approximately its current latitude which is almost 57° N. Recent field work in Aniakchak National Monument has revealed over 75 new track sites, dramatically increasing the dinosaur record from the Alaska Peninsula. Most of the combined record of tracks can be attributed to hadrosaurs, the plant-eating duck-billed dinosaurs. Tracks range in size from those made by full-grown adults to juveniles. Other tracks can be attributed to armored dinosaurs, meat-eating dinosaurs, and two kinds of fossil birds. The track size of the predatory dinosaur suggests a body approximately 6–7 m long, about the estimated size of the North Slope tyrannosaurid Nanuqsaurus. The larger bird tracks resemble Magnoavipes denaliensis previously described from Denali National Park, while the smaller bird tracks were made by a bird about the size of a modern Willet. Previous interdisciplinary sedimentologic and paleontologic work in the correlative and well-known dinosaur bonebeds of the Prince Creek Formation 1400km-1500km further north in Alaska suggested that high-latitude hadrosaurs preferred distal coastal plain or lower delta plain habitats. The ichnological record being uncovered in the Chignik Formation of southwestern Alaska is showing that the hadrosaur tracks here were also made in distal coastal and delta plain conditions. This similarity may corroborate the habitat preference model for Cretaceous high-latitude dinosaurs proposed for the data gathered from the Prince Creek Formation, and may indicate that at least Beringian hadrosaurids had similar habitat preferences regardless of latitude. Public Library of Science 2019-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6821036/ /pubmed/31665132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223471 Text en © 2019 Fiorillo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Fiorillo, Anthony R.
Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu
McCarthy, Paul J.
Tanaka, Tomonori
Tykoski, Ronald S.
Lee, Yuong-Nam
Takasaki, Ryuji
Yoshida, Junki
Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title_full Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title_fullStr Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title_full_unstemmed Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title_short Dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the Chignik Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska; Further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
title_sort dinosaur ichnology and sedimentology of the chignik formation (upper cretaceous), aniakchak national monument, southwestern alaska; further insights on habitat preferences of high-latitude hadrosaurs
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31665132
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223471
work_keys_str_mv AT fiorilloanthonyr dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT kobayashiyoshitsugu dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT mccarthypaulj dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT tanakatomonori dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT tykoskironalds dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT leeyuongnam dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT takasakiryuji dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs
AT yoshidajunki dinosaurichnologyandsedimentologyofthechignikformationuppercretaceousaniakchaknationalmonumentsouthwesternalaskafurtherinsightsonhabitatpreferencesofhighlatitudehadrosaurs