The new evidence rewrites the timeline of dinosaurs’ migration across two continents.
A cliff in Jameson Land Basin in central East Greenland, the northernmost site where sauropodomorph fossils are found. The labels point out several series of layers that helped the researchers precisely date the oldest sauropodomorph fossils in North America. (Photo by Lars Clemmensen)
(CN) Scientists have discovered new evidence indicating a massive dip in atmospheric carbon dioxide enabled dinosaurs to migrate from South America to Greenland.
In their study, published Monday in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, Dennis Kent, an adjunct research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Lars Clemmensen from the University of Copenhagen discuss their findings and likely theories.
February 15, 2021
By Sarah Fecht
A cliff in Jameson Land Basin in central East Greenland, the northernmost site where sauropodomorph fossils are found. The labels point out several series of layers that helped the researchers precisely date the oldest sauropodomorph fossils in North America. Photo: Lars Clemmensen
A new paper refines estimates of when herbivorous dinosaurs must have traversed North America on a northerly trek to reach Greenland, and points out an intriguing climatic phenomenon that may have helped them along the journey.
Illustration of a species of
Plateosaurus dinosaur. The earliest known sauropodomorph fossils in Greenland come from the
The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is authored by Dennis Kent, adjunct research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Lars Clemmensen from the University of Copenhagen.