Book description
In 1961, while mapping rock exposures along the Colville River in
Alaska, an oil company geologist would unknowingly find the evidence
for a startling discovery. Long before the North Slope of Alaska was
being exploited for its petroleum resources it was a place where
dinosaurs roamed. Dinosaurs under the Aurora immerses readers in the
challenges, stark beauty, and hard-earned rewards of conducting
paleontological field work in the Arctic. Roland A. Gangloff recounts
the significant discoveries of field and museum research on Arctic
dinosaurs, most notably of the last 25 years when the remarkable
record of dinosaurs from Alaska was compiled. This research has
changed the way we think about dinosaurs and their world. Examining
long-standing controversies, such as the end-Cretaceous extinction of
dinosaurs and whether dinosaurs were residents or just seasonal
visitors to polar latitudes, Gangloff takes readers on a delightful
and instructive journey into the world of paleontology as it is
conducted in the land under the aurora.
"Whether it is the logistics of conducting fieldwork in tune
with the life cycle of the peregrine falcons on the Colville River,
extracting bones from the permafrost, dealing with Arctic mosquitoes,
or envisioning the high Arctic world during the Cretaceous, Gangloff
takes you there as only a true field paleontologist can. His vivid
narrative brings this research to life." -Jim Kirkland, State
Paleontologist of Utah
Roland A. Gangloff is Emeritus Associate Professor of Geology and
Geophysics and former Curator of Earth Science at the University of
Alaska Museum of the North. He is presently a Visiting Scholar at the
University of California Museum of Paleontology.
