Nature
The Prince Creek Formation on Alaska’s North Slope preserves a rare record of life and climate in an ancient Arctic coastal plain near the Cretaceous polar circle. Exposed especially along the Colville River near Ocean Point, its sedimentary beds range from the Late Cretaceous into the Paleocene and are famed for fossil-rich upper layers that have produced dinosaur remains, tyrannosaurid teeth, birds, and other vertebrates. These fossils document animals and forests living at about 80° north paleolatitude through long, dark winters. Its rocks also record rivers, lakes, wetlands, wildfires, seasonal cooling, and a relatively mild greenhouse Arctic despite the extreme latitude.
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Nuiqsut, Alaska · United States
