Journey to Alaska

Why Alaska?

With respect to his explorations in Alaska, the great conservationist Bob Marshall once wrote that blank spaces on maps fascinated him. Alaska remains today largely unexplored with respect to paleontology. So when my colleagues at the University of Alaska invited me to join them in the hunt for dinosaurs in Alaska, it was a dream come true.

Over the course of five years of field work I have become used to traveling in remote territory by small planes, boats, rafts, or just having to bushwhack my way through pathless country. The difficulties are many and even with everything planned to the tiniest detail, still Mother Nature has unexpected things in store. Despite these problems, the rewards are many, and the possibilities of new discoveries are endless.

But Alaska also provides an opportunity to learn about the dinosaurs of Texas. During what is called the Cretaceous Period, a time approximately 144 to 65 million years ago, there was a great seaway that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Several years of studying dinosaurs in Big Bend National Park and the ancient environments in Alaska has provided an understanding of why some Texas dinosaurs only lived here in the south.

This exhibit highlights some of the work in three areas where I have been most active; the North Slope, or Arctic Alaska, Katmai National Park, and Aniakchak National Monument.

Forget-Me-Nots, Tattler Creek, Denali National Park

Creamers Field, Fairbanks

Alaska Range, Denali National Park

Bull Moose near Marion Creek, Brooks Range

Expedition to Alaska is sponsored by:

About Dr. Fiorillo

Growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, Dr. Fiorillo's favorite place to visit as a child was the Yale Peabody Museum. There he viewed the famous Age of Reptiles mural by Rudolf Zallinger and pondered dinosaurs. His fascination with dinosaurs never stopped. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Connecticut, he received his Master of Science degree from the University of Nebraska and eventually his Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Pennsylvania.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History he became a museum scientist at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California-Berkeley. Finally in 1995, Dr. Fiorillo joined the Dallas Museum of Natural History as the Curator of Earth Sciences.

Dr. Fiorillo has led numerous expeditions in western North America, particularly Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Alaska, in addition to field work in Asia, Australia, and South America. He has worked on fossil deposits ranging in age from 1.7 billion years old to those only a few thousand years in age and has published over 100 scientific and popular papers. Dr. Fiorillo also is an adjunct associate professor at Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Tony Fiorillo crossing creek, Aniakchak National Monument

Acknowledgements

The Museum of Nature & Science gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Alaska Museum, the National Park Service Alaska Region, Southern Methodist University, and the United States Army for their roles in this project. In addition, the Museum also thanks American Airlines, Whole Earth Provision Company, Academy Sports and Outdoor, and Phillips Petroleum Company for their respective contributions to the ongoing research in Alaska.