“Almost every dinosaur [we find] is a new species. We put out a theory a few years ago that the Arctic dinosaurs were a cold-adapted group and that’s why they are all different from other parts of the continent.”
The lack of ectotherms – animals that are dependent on external sources of body heat – like turtles or crocodiles supports the idea of a division of dinosaurs who developed into being warm-blooded when previously all research led to dinos being entirely cold-blooded.
“It's like forensic science: We are very limited by what material is in front of us. Many questions are intractable given what we have to work with.”
Erickson is still working hard to discover more about one of the most exciting species that have walked the earth, and with technology and methods always advancing, researchers are always learning more and more.
Erickson is currently the co-director of the Arctic Paleontological Research Consortium, alongside Pat Druckenmiller, a curator of Alaska's Museum of the North in Fairbanks, and they look at how dinosaurs would have survived in high latitudes.
While it was warmer millions of years ago, there was still plenty of darkness and snow. Alaskan dinosaur fossils are often found preserved in permafrost, and while the work is difficult, Erickson and Druckenmiller are getting results.
Erickson has even discovered an entirely new species of dinosaur that lived approximately eighty-five million years ago. In 2008, members of the Birmingham Paleontology Society discovered a complete skull, dozens of backbones, a partial hip bone, and several bones from the limbs.
Erickson ended up studying the bones alongside a few others, and they quickly determined that the bones belonged to an undiscovered dinosaur – a huge advancement in paleontology.
The team was led to believe it was one of the most complete duck-billed dinosaur skeletons ever to be found in the eastern United States. Its teeth show an ability to grind plants similar to cows or horses and are similar to early hadrosaurids, and it allowed them to chew and digest a wide variety of plants.
In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Erickson said: “These dinosaurs eventually became the dominant plant-eaters around the world.”