What types of fossils have been found in Alaska?
More than a dozen dinosaur species have been found in Alaska, most from the time just before the massive extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The first dinosaur fossils found in Alaska were on the North Slope during the mid-1980s. The North Slope refers to the northern side of the Brooks Range, the most northern mountain range in Alaska. The fossils were of an Edmontosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur of the hadrosaur family. Edmontosaurus was a large plant eater, about 10 feet tall and 40 feet long. It weighed about 3 tons. More recent fossils of other hadrosaurs, the Troodon and the Dromaeosaurus have been found along the Colville River of the North Slope. These dinosaurs were smaller than the Edmontosaurus and were carnivores. Dinosaur footprints from the Jurassic Period have been found near Black Lake on the Alaska Peninsula. The tracks date back more than 140 million years, the oldest fossil evidence in Alaska, but scientists are not certain on the species of d
