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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?
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An article regarding the discovery of a new T-rex relative from Alaska: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/nanuqsaurus_hoglundi_alaskas_pigmy_t_rex-131592 The timing of the description of Nanuqsaurus surprised me, but it's no surprise that N. hoglundi shows that the diversity of Edmontonian tyrannosaurs was greater than previously thought, given that Albertosaurus and Nanuqsaurus lived about the same time and belong to different subfamilies of T. rex. The discovery of Nanuqsaurus also lends support to the hypothesis that the ancestors of T. rex emigrated to North America from Asia via Beringia. The article describing Nanuqsaurus is as follows: Anthony R. Fiorillo & Ronald S. Tykoski (2014)A Diminutive New Tyrannosaur from the Top of the World.PLoS ONE 9(3): e91287.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091287http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0091287
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