Ugrunaaluk

ancient grazer

• ugrunaaluk · Iñupiaq · ancient grazer

The name comes from the Iñupiaq language of northern Alaska, where "ugrunaaluk" means "ancient grazer". It was chosen because this hadrosaurid was a plant-eating dinosaur found on Alaska's North Slope, and the Iñupiaq name honours the local people and region. The species name, kuukpikensis, refers to the Kuukpik (Colville) River, along which the fossils were found.

Named by

Mori et al.

Year named

2015

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Maastrichtian

Found in

Prince Creek Formation, North Slope, Alaska, USA

A hadrosaurid (duck-billed dinosaur) known from a bonebed of mostly juvenile individuals; the only species is Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis. Its validity is debated: some researchers (e.g. Xing et al., 2017) have argued it is a junior synonym of Edmontosaurus (E. regalis), while others retain it as a distinct genus. The 2015 date is the online publication; the journal volume is dated 2016.