FAIRBANKS -- The Arnold Espe Auditorium at the University of Alaska Museum of the North was filled to capacity last week with people hoping to learn about dinosaurs that roamed across Alaska 70 million years ago.
The program began with "Arctic Dinosaurs," a one-hour documentary produced by NOVA that presented different theories surrounding dinosaur survival in the polar north during the late Cretaceous period. The film speculated on the effects of four months of continuous darkness on dinosaurs, although, based on plant evidence, temperatures weren't nearly as cold as today's, and also hypothesized about adaptations and migratory theories.
Linked to all these possibilities is the extensive Liscomb fossil bed on the banks of the Colville River and the construction of a permafrost tunnel dug in 2006 to excavate fossils from the bed, which is estimated to be 3 feet thick. The idea was to access large fossils deep in the bed, as well as examine better-preserved fossils not exposed to repeated freeze-thaw cycles, such as those at the top of the bed.
The tunnel might provide some answers to the mysteries of arctic dinosaurs, said Patrick Druckenmiller, a paleontologist, assistant professor with the Department of Geology and Geophysics and curator of earth sciences at the museum.
"It seems like we've just started to figure things out with those dinosaurs on the North Slope," Druckenmiller said. "I think we're really going to start finding some good stuff in there."
The 40 or so children in the audience, when not wowed by the documentary's computer-generated dinosaur footage, appeared restless during scientists' interviews and theoretical analysis.
Following a brief question and answer period after the film, when children wondered if dinosaurs lived in the ocean and which was the tallest, the key point of interest was made available for viewing and touching: three tables of fossilized bones, teeth and tracks.
Most of the kids couldn't wait to get their hands on a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth or hold a Velociraptor skull.
"Dinosaurs are pretty cool," said Aidan Mulrooney, 6. "And I know quite a lot."
Did he know dinosaurs once roamed Alaska?
"No, that's one thing I learned," he admitted with a good-natured smile.
Some attendees weren't as concerned with Alaska dinosaurs in particular but brought their kids for the rare chance to handle some of the bones and replica casts on display.
"It's neat that they are able to touch things," said Amy Olsen, whose 4-year-old son, Samuel, poked at the teeth of a Brachylophosaurus while her younger son, Silas, gazed sleepily at the proceedings while resting on her back. "He asked if we'd see dinosaurs here. I didn't think so, so this is a real bonus."
"We had to bring them here; they love dinosaurs," Beth Poisson said. Her two boys, Carter, 4, and Reece, 3, busily examined anything within reach. "The older one wants to do his own excavations in the backyard. He's been burying pillows and stuffed animals."
"When it comes to dinosaurs and kids, they are inseparable," Druckenmiller said.
By GLENN BURNSILVER
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner