Like a lot of Paleomedia, Dinosaurs of Alaska uses speculative material, I’m going to make sure it’s all grounded in reality and is something that animals today actually do. Nonetheless I need Y’all to review it. Comment if you notice anything that doesn’t seem right.
Generic species
These are plants, animals, and other stuff that are used as backdrops and aren’t known to have lived in late Cretaceous Alaska. All these species did exist at this time though.
Mushrooms
Reeds
Plants with berries
Sea weed (I’m not actually sure if anything like Kelp existed 70 million years ago, if it didn’t please tell me)
Sea urchins
Crabs
Clams
Jellyfish
Sea stars
Barnacles
Shrimp
Flies
Beetles
Wasps/bees
Spiders
Butterflies
Crawfish
Freshwater ray finned fish
Saltwater ray finned fish
Mesozoic Glaciers
I want to add glaciers into the story, because it gives a sense of scale. I’m not sure if it was actually cold enough for glaciers to form, even in the arctic.
Beach combing Saurornitholestes
Basically, some Saurornitholestes will spend some time hunting on the beach to feed one whatever washes up, crabs, jellyfish, ammonites, etc.
Color changing Enchoteuthis
Modern Octopus change color (I’m not sure if all species do), and despite looking like a squid, Enchotethis is an Octopus.
Bird eating Enchoteuthis
Here’s something a lot more speculative, I want to show an Enchoteuthis grabbing a small Hesperornis to eat, but I don’t know if it’s a fully reasonable idea.
Paleoarctic Subnivean
If you don’t know what that is, a Subnivean climate is the environment between the ground and the top of the snow in the winter, usually a bunch on interconnecting tunnels . Insects, mammals, and even birds inhabit them. I had the idea that the mammals in the book could live in one too.
Fireweed fields
Afaik, Fireweed has not been preserved in the fossil record. But I really want to add fireweed fields because it serves as a nice Alaskan backdrop. The family that fireweed is apart of was present in the Cretaceous.
Hesperornis roosting on rocks like seals
The reason I want the birds to rest like seals and not today’s sea birds is because Hesperornis can’t fly and is much bigger, and stuff like penguins are very different from Hesperornis.
Troodon pack hunting
In the story, the Troodons form temporary hunting gangs to bring down larger, or faster prey. This is mainly based on crows and how they will form gangs.
Swimming Albertosaurus
We have evidence of Tyrannosaurus swimming, why not Albertosaurus?
Freshwater Hybodus
Some sharks today will swim into freshwater, so it’s possible Hybodus did too.
Herbivores in herds
I’m pretty sure there’s evidence for stuff like Edmontosaurus traveling in herds, but not so much for the ceratopsians like Pachyrhinosaurus and the Leptoceratopsid.
Head butting Alaskacephales
Out of all the speculations, this one probably has the best evidence. There’s direct fossil evidence that Pachycephalosaurus used its dome to headbut, and what’s Pachycephalosaurus’s closest relative? Alaskacephale.
Share your thoughts below.
