Tropical Fossils in Alaska | Geophysical Institute A 20-inch fossil palm leaf that once waved over a tropical forest in Alaska 45-60 million years ago The fossil was found in rocks near the Malaspina Glacier Photo from the U S Geological Survey, Dept of the Interior
On the ancient trail of a woolly mammoth | Geophysical Institute That is the date of the youngest mammoth fossil found in the Interior Scientists have debated how mammoths might have disappeared from middle Alaska A changing climate in which trees and shrubs were crowding out grasslands is one possibility Another is that people overhunted them Maybe it was a combination of the two
Introducing “Nanuq,” the mini tyrannosaurus of the North Slope . . . Tykoski is the fossil preparator at the museum Like the polar bear, Nanuqsaurus was in its day the dominant meat-eater of the far north The prehistoric North Slope was a green plain spilling beneath the baby Brooks Range with a climate that could have been something between Portland and Calgary today
Bygone Bears of Prince of Wales Island | Geophysical Institute During the 1992 field season, the team conducted full-scale excavations of the El Capitan bear den, opening the old entrance and recovering the fossil remains Radiocarbon dating supported the scientists' belief that the bones were old, from animals living about 9700 to more than 12,000 years before the present
Soil Bacteria Gobble Spilled Diesel Fuel - Geophysical Institute The fuel-eating bacteria, known as Pseudomonas, have evolved a taste for hydrocarbons, the major component of fossil fuels The molecular structure of a hydrocarbon can be visualized as a backbone-like string of carbon atoms bonded to a rib cage of hydrogen atoms