Episode 11 is all about Nanuqsaurus, a small tyrannosaur that lived in the ancient Arctic.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Nanuqsaurus hoglundhi, a tiny cousin of T-rex that lived in the Arctic 70 million years ago
• Nanuqsaurus got its name from the Inupiat word for polar bear, as well as from Forrest Hoglund, the donor to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, where the two men who discovered Nanuqsaurus work (Tony Fiorillo and Ron Tykoski)
• Nanuqsaurus lived in Northern Alaska, then part of the subcontinent Larimidia, which had weather like modern-day Seattle
• But depending on the seasons, the Arctic could still have long days or short days with long nights (winter had 24 hours of darkness)
• The Arctic where Nanuqsaurus lived was a coastal plain, with tall conifer forests and flowering plants
• Fiorillo and Tykoski actually discovered Nanuqsaurus in 2006 (skull and jaw fossil fragments) in the Kikak-Tegoseak quarry, on the North Slope close to the Yukon border
• But they initially ignored the discovery because of a second discovery, of the horned dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus
• But they found tooth marks in Pachyrhinosaurus
• The excavation area was 13 x 13 feet, about 400 miles northwest of Fairbanks
• The team was funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs
• Nearby Alberta is well known for its dinosaur bone beds, but the Arctic is mostly unchartered territory.
• Nanuqsaurus shows how tyrannosaurines adapted to life in the Arctic
• Nanuqsaurus is a cousin of T-rex and Tarbosaurus, but lived 1-2 million years before T-rex
• Except for its small size, Nanuqsaurus looked a lot like T-rex, but it only weighed 1,000 pounds
• Nanusqaurus probably was small so it could survive winters, when prey migrated or hibernated and became scarce
• Interestingly, animals generally grow bigger at the Poles (such as polar bears, which are the largest bears), because bigger animals lose heat more slowly
• Nanuqsaurus was the dominant carnivore in its habitat, but at least four other carnivores and four other herbivores lived there at the same time
• Nanuqsaurus was 20 feet long, had a 2-foot long skull, was 6 feet high at the hip, and had killer-whale like teeth and twiggy arms
• It also had a long nasal cavity and great sense of smell, which would have been useful in the dark. Because of its heightened sense of small, it was probably an active hunter, not a scavenger
• Nanuqsaurus‘ upper jawbone (maxilla) had distinctive sockets found only in adults of some advanced tyrannosaurs
• Nanuqsaurus probably had a lot of fuzz, like other tyrannosaurs (probably warm-blooded)
• Nanuqsaurus is part of the subfamily Tyrannosaurinae
• Tyrannosaurinae is one of two subfamilies of Tyrannosauridae
• The other subfamily is Abertosaurinae, which includes Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus
• Albertosaurines tend to be more slender, with lower skulls
• Tyrannosaurinae includes Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus
• Some scientists have made more subdivisions within the subfamilies, which there is not enough information to make it official
• Fun fact: Dinosaurs were actually pretty smart (the smartest dinosaur was smarter than mammals that lived at the same time)

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