Alaska News

Evidence of 'feathery dinosaurs' found in Interior Alaska

Paleontologist Tony Fiorillo of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, has been finding a lot of dinosaur action in Alaska.

In June, Ned Rozell reported on Fiorillo's Hadrosaur stone footprint found in the Wrangell Mountains. Most recently, Fiorillo and Thomas Adams have uncovered "trace fossils" belonging to the feather-clad cousin of the infamous Jurassic raptor in Denali National Park, Alaska.

The "trace fossils" belong to the "Therizinosaur," a less ferocious, fluffier dino when compared to the "Jurassic Park" celebrity varieties. According to Smithsonian.com:

The new issue of "PALAIOS," an international journal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology, details Tony Fiorillo and Thomas Adams' discovery of the Therizinosaur's prints, which had never before been found in Alaska.

To read more about the Therizinosaur, check out the Smithsonian article here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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