Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, the new dinosaur discovered in Alaska – The Point

His name is unpronounceable, but it could revolutionize science and the history of the planet. Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis is a new species of dinosaur discovered in northern Alaska, the United States, by a team of researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the life sciences department at the University Florida.

The Colville River in northern Alaska, near which were discovered fossils of a new species of dinosaur. © Google Screenshot

The fossils of the new species were discovered in a rocky layer old 69 million years. Despite the cold, the researchers were able to extract more than 6000 pieces of this dinosaur, a few million years after its existence. Most pieces belong to babies measuring between one and three meters.

“former grazer”

This finding challenges the hypothesis that dinosaurs were not able to survive in tropical environments. “Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis” means “old grazer of Colville River” in Inupiat Eskimo language, people living in the far west – and cold – Alaska

herbivore, which would. lived in North America but also in Asia and Europe, between 100 million years and 66 million years before Christ, could reach nine meters long as an adult. This animal from ancient times is part of the family hadrosaurid, better known as the “duck-billed dinosaur.”