This award supports a vertebrate paleontological investigation to increase knowledge of the composition and biostratigraphy of Campanian and Maestrichtian terrestrial faunas of the North Slope, Alaska. Collecting in the Big Bend-Ocean Point area will provide: 1) more material for a thorough systematic analysis of the common hadrosaurid, 2) taphonomic data for an evaluation of the fidelity with which the bone bed reflects the composition of the fauna, and 3) specimens for a study of the processes of fossilization that apparently involved little permineralization. Results of these studies will promote investigations of possible modes of adaptation of vertebrates to the rigors of environments at high northern latitudes and patterns of intercontinental dispersal of terrestrial vertebrates between North America and Asia.
