The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska
Compared to the osteological record of herbivorous dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska, there are relatively fewer remains of theropods. The theropod record from this unit is mostly comprised of isolated teeth, and the only non-dental remains known can be att...
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ftrepec:oai:RePEc:plo:pone00:0235078 2023-05-15T14:53:39+02:00 The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Anthony R Fiorillo Ronald S Tykoski Paul J McCarthy Peter P Flaig Dori L Contreras https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078&type=printable unknown https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078&type=printable article ftrepec 2020-12-04T13:41:39Z Compared to the osteological record of herbivorous dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska, there are relatively fewer remains of theropods. The theropod record from this unit is mostly comprised of isolated teeth, and the only non-dental remains known can be attributed to the troodontid cf. Troodon and the tyrannosaurid Nanuqsaurus. Thus far, the presence of members of Dromaeosauridae has been limited to isolated teeth. Here we describe a symphyseal portion of a small dentary with two ziphodont teeth. Based on tooth shape, denticle morphology, and the position of the Meckelian groove, we attribute this partial dentary to a saurornitholestine dromaeosaurid. The fibrous bone surface, small size, and higher number of mesial denticles compared to distal ones point to a juvenile growth stage for this individual. Multivariate comparison of theropod teeth morphospace by means of principal component analysis reveals an overlap between this dentary and Saurornitholestinae dromaeosaurid morphospace, a result supported by phylogenetic analyses. This is the first confirmed non-dental fossil specimen from a member of Dromaeosauridae in the Arctic, expanding on the role of Beringia as a dispersal route for this clade between Asia and North America. Furthermore, the juvenile nature of this individual adds to a growing body of data that suggests Cretaceous Arctic dinosaurs of Alaska did not undergo long-distance migration, but rather they were year-round residents of these paleopolar latitudes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Alaska Beringia RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) Arctic Prince Creek ENVELOPE(-38.067,-38.067,-54.017,-54.017) |
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Compared to the osteological record of herbivorous dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska, there are relatively fewer remains of theropods. The theropod record from this unit is mostly comprised of isolated teeth, and the only non-dental remains known can be attributed to the troodontid cf. Troodon and the tyrannosaurid Nanuqsaurus. Thus far, the presence of members of Dromaeosauridae has been limited to isolated teeth. Here we describe a symphyseal portion of a small dentary with two ziphodont teeth. Based on tooth shape, denticle morphology, and the position of the Meckelian groove, we attribute this partial dentary to a saurornitholestine dromaeosaurid. The fibrous bone surface, small size, and higher number of mesial denticles compared to distal ones point to a juvenile growth stage for this individual. Multivariate comparison of theropod teeth morphospace by means of principal component analysis reveals an overlap between this dentary and Saurornitholestinae dromaeosaurid morphospace, a result supported by phylogenetic analyses. This is the first confirmed non-dental fossil specimen from a member of Dromaeosauridae in the Arctic, expanding on the role of Beringia as a dispersal route for this clade between Asia and North America. Furthermore, the juvenile nature of this individual adds to a growing body of data that suggests Cretaceous Arctic dinosaurs of Alaska did not undergo long-distance migration, but rather they were year-round residents of these paleopolar latitudes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Anthony R Fiorillo Ronald S Tykoski Paul J McCarthy Peter P Flaig Dori L Contreras |
spellingShingle |
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Anthony R Fiorillo Ronald S Tykoski Paul J McCarthy Peter P Flaig Dori L Contreras The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
author_facet |
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Anthony R Fiorillo Ronald S Tykoski Paul J McCarthy Peter P Flaig Dori L Contreras |
author_sort |
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza |
title |
The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
title_short |
The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
title_full |
The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
title_fullStr |
The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
The first juvenile dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Arctic Alaska |
title_sort |
first juvenile dromaeosaurid (dinosauria: theropoda) from arctic alaska |
url |
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078&type=printable |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-38.067,-38.067,-54.017,-54.017) |
geographic |
Arctic Prince Creek |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Prince Creek |
genre |
Arctic Alaska Beringia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Alaska Beringia |
op_relation |
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235078&type=printable |
_version_ |
1766325251685220352 |