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I was very pleasantly surprised (actually more thrilled to be honest) when I heard about the discovery of the northern tyrannosaurid dinosaur Nanuqusaurus hoglundi from the Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation dating 70.6-69.1 Million Years ago in what is now the U.S. State of Alaska. Image Credit and Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260757717_A_Diminutive_New_Tyrannosaur_from_the_Top_of_the_World At first thought to be only 5-6 meters (16-20 feet) in length based on the currently catalogued specimens, it's now believed based on currently undescribed remains to be 8-9 meters (26-30 feet) in length fully grown (compared to the 12.3-12.4 meters (40.4-40.7 feet) in length it's cousin Tyrannosaurus rex could reach fully grown). Image Credit: Artist Nathan Rogers Image Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z5w900 Fiorillo, A. R., & Tykoski, R. S., 2014. A diminutive new tyrannosaur from the top of the world. PloS one, 9(3), e91287. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091287 Druckenmiller, P. S., Erickson, G. M., Brinkman, D., Brown, C. M., & Eberle, J. J. (2021). Nesting at extreme polar latitudes by non-avian dinosaurs. Current biology : CB, 31(16), 3469–3478.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.041 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00739-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982221007399%3Fshowall%3Dtrue The Tyrannosaurid Nanuqusaurus is also unique as the northern most tyrannosaur known from Western North America (at the time the continent of Laramidia). Adapted to the colder climates of the region, it shared its habitat with a vast diversity of plants, small mammals, and other non-avian dinosaurs including hadrosaurs such as Edmontosaurus, the pachycephalosaur Alaskacephale, the Ceratopsian Pachyrhinosaurus, and a large currently unnamed genus of troodontidae. But it's confirmed geologic range is only during the early Maastrichtian (70.6-69.1 Million Years ago) of the Cretaceous period. Images Credits and Sources: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260757717_A_Diminutive_New_Tyrannosaur_from_the_Top_of_the_World Fiorillo, A. R., and Gangloff, R. A., 2001. Theropod teeth from the Prince Creek Formation (Cretaceous) of northern Alaska, with speculations on Arctic dinosaur paleoecology. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 20(4):675-682 Image Credit: Artist Nathan Rogers Image Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z5w900 The question I have is why this is? Did anything major happen to the habitat of the Prince Creek Formation between the Early-Late Maastrichtian? Did Nanuqusaurus live up to 66 Million Years ago to the latest Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous period?

Happy New Year Everyone Will start the New Year with something Tom Holtz posted and said "Quick and dirty plot of new Mesozoic dinosauromorph taxa named since 2003. No evaluation of legitimacy of taxa taken into account, but "grey literature" not included. Includes new species & new genera, but not placement of old species into previously named genera" Looks like 2019 was one of the best years for naming dinosaurs My first image is that of a claw you would not see on any Trex of any age its a Nannotyannus hand claw its 4" long from South Dakota I find this very interesting the NHM dino lab posted these images of "holotype" Sauropods from Argentina that are stored in hallways in their museum. WOW.. The holotype of Patagosaurus, Saltasaurus and a nice little Mussaurus skull, capturing about 130 million years of sauropodomorph evolution between them in the collections at PVL Now this is what we need from the Kem Kem...an Abelisaurid skull with teeth The abelisaurid Majungasaurus crenatissimus from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar! High-quality preservation courtesy of S. Gutherz Partial, juvenile hadrosaur dentary from the Liscomb Quarry of the North Slope of Alaska. Perot Museum More from the Perot Museum, Not the prettiest but this tyrannosaur tooth was found up against a Pachyrhinosaurus skull in the type locality of P. perotorum and the Arctic tyrannosaur Nanuqsaurus hoglundi. A very early ornithischian dinosaur Heterodontosaurus from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa & Lesotho , NHM Dino Lab For those of you that like Stegosaur's here is an orange creation. Understand its pretty rare Brazilian researchers have found a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of the Macrocollum itaquii, the oldest long-necked dinosaur in the world, Triassic in age A beautiful specimen of Tianyuraptor housed at the Paleontological Museum of Liaoning, courtesy of Peter Makovicky Michael Ryan posted this maxilla of Daspletosaurus, not sure of locality