NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Located on a cliff bordering the Gulf of Alaska, set inside one of the wildest and least visited places in the National Park System, are hundreds of dinosaur footprints. For Paleontologist Dr. Anthony Fiorillo, who is also the executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, these tracks help shape the narrative of how dinosaurs traveled to New Mexico millions of years ago.
What is the New Mexico state fossil?
“Every trip we find more, which is just sort of a mind-blowing experience; that one of the best records to study dinosaurs and their environments anywhere in the world is one of the hardest places to get to,” Fiorillo said about his 12th visit to the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve in August to study dinosaur tracks.
Fiorillo has conducted research in Alaska for 28 years and made the first discovery of dinosaur footprints in any Alaskan national park. His research focuses on dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period. “There are two windows that I work on. One is about 70 million years ago, 70, 72 million years. And then the other one is about 100 million years ago when that Bering Land Bridge first in place geologically,” he explained.
The Bering Land Bridge is a significant feature, which Fiorillo and researchers say allowed dinosaurs to travel from Central Asia to the Western United States, including Alaska and New Mexico. According to Fiorillo, all the dinosaurs found in New Mexico, except for Almasaurus—a giant sauropod originally found in the Land of Enchantment—came to New Mexico from Central Asia through Alaska.
So what dinosaur tracks has Fiorillo found on the Aniakchak cliff that have ties to New Mexico? Here are a few examples:…