"Alaskan Dinosaurs" is a 2022 documentary distributed by both NOVA, National Geographic and the BBC. I recently watched it on Swedish TV, assuming it was a peculiar rerun of an earlier NOVA docu, "Arctic Dinosaur" (which I really liked). However, it seems the very concept of dinos in northern Alaska 70 million years ago has morphed into a virtual TV cottage industry lately!
The basic plot is the same, though: a team of paleontologists roam Alaska in the dead of winter, looking for ancient dinosaur bones in the Prince Creek formation. Another location scanned is Denali (Mount McKinley). During the Cretaceous, Alaska was even further north than today, and the constant question is how cold-blooded reptiles could have survived there at all. Although the global temperature was much higher during the Age of Dinosaurs, it would have dropped below zero during the polar night, which lasted for four months at the place later known as Prince Creek. For various reasons, scientists don´t believe that the dinosaurs could have migrated further south. They seem to have stay put all year long. The fauna was also incredibly diverse, featuring both fairly large herbivorous dinosaurs and various predators, including tyrannosaurids. Pterodactyls were another staple.
"The dog that didn´t bark" is the total absence of fossils from reptiles we know for sure were cold-blooded, such as lizards, snakes or tortoises. Instead, birds and mammals have been excavated! They are, of course, warm-blooded. This suggests that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded, too. It´s relatively well established that some dinosaurs were feathered (including tyrannosaurids). Further research also shows that they might have feasted upon decaying wood filled with insects and other critters, thereby surviving the winter months.
All that being said, I still found "Alaskan Dinosaurs" more boring than "Arctic Dinosaurs", but perhaps that´s subjective. Also, the macho angle from the old documentary is gone, replaced by more "Woke" angles, including paleontologists who look slightly trans, and one who says that tyrannosaurids were cute! I suppose that, too, is a bit subjective...
Still, might be worth watching and pondering on a cold polar night, but preferrably indoors.