Active research projects
Marine reptiles of Svalbard, Norway
Click on the image to read more about the Svalbard Jurassic Research Project.
Dr. Pat Druckenmiller is currently involved in a large collaborative project with the University of Oslo Natural History Museum in Oslo to investigate a prolific new site of Jurassic-aged marine reptiles from the high Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
Arctic Dinosaurs of Alaska
A sunny arctic summer day during the 2010 field season along the Colville River.
The UA Museum hosts the largest collection of Arctic dinosaurs in the world. In collaboration with Dr. Greg Erickson at the Florida State University, we seek to better understand dinosaurs that lived in Arctic Alaska during the Late Cretaceous, approximately 69 million years ago. This work is sponsored by funding from the National Science Foundation.
Marine Reptiles of Alaska
Dr. Pat Druckenmiller (right) with the thalattosaur fossil found from an intertidal zone outcrop near Kake, Southeast Alaska. Click on the photo to read the UAMN news story.
Several exciting discoveries of marine reptiles have been made in Alaska. Most recently a world class specimen of a thalattosaur, a small Triassic marine reptile, was made in southeast Alaska. Other exciting finds currently under study include a large ichthyosaur with gut contents from the foothills of the Brooks Range, a new Middle Jurassic ichthyosaur from the Talkeetna Mountains, and a small, rare ichthyosaur from southeast Alaska.
Jurassic dinosaurs of the Naknek Formation, southwestern Alaska
In 2010, a team of Alaskan scientists, lead by the UA Museum, rediscovered a dinosaur trackway found 35 years earlier near Chignik, Alaska. The tracks were found in the Upper Jurassic Naknek Formation and constitute the oldest record of dinosaurs found in the state. We are currently investigating other possible occurrences of dinosaurs in the formation on the Alaska Peninsula/Becharof National Wildlife Refuges.
Video (in 2 parts) by Roger Topp, UA Museum.
