NOVA explores how dinosaurs may have survived in extreme polar
environments and what may have driven them to extinction.
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follows a team of scientists to a remote Alaskan dig site high
above the Colville River where paleontologists have discovered
dozens of dinosaurs.
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reports that scientists are using fossil finds from two Alaskan
sites—the Kikak-Tegoseak quarry and the Lipscomb
Bonebed—to piece together how dinosaurs may have lived
during the late Cretaceous period 70 million years ago.
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notes that the finds challenge the typical picture of dinosaurs
as cold-blooded reptiles living in warm environments.
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shows how scientists excavate and then close off a cliff tunnel
in winter, while the ground is frozen, to return in summer to
mine the tunnel for dinosaur fossils.
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follows scientists as they excavate and prepare a
Pachyrhinosaurus skull for shipping to Texas for further
study.
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explains how one paleobotanist uses leaf shapes and tree rings
to determine ancient temperatures and seasonal changes.
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reports the paleobotanist's finding that the polar climate
during the Cretaceous period was warmer than it is today.
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features a trace fossil expert who recreates what the polar
environment may have been like when the dinosaurs lived.
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shows how one scientist analyzes hadrosaur bones for clues to
dinosaur metabolism and concludes that the hadrosaur was active
year-round.
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points out that if polar dinosaurs had already adapted to living
in cooler and darker environments, then they may have been able
to survive the environment that formed after the massive
asteroid strike thought to have caused their extinction.
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suggests other events that may have contributed to dinosaur
extinction.
