Longevity and growth rate estimates for a polar dinosaur: a Pachyrhinosaurus (Dinosauria: Neoceratopsia) specimen from the North Slope of Alaska showing a complete developmental record

Abstract

Our knowledge of growth dynamics in large ceratopsian dinosaurs is very poor, in part, due to the paucity of quantifiable age markers such as growth lines in their bones. We sought marker-based, osteohistological evidence for ceratopsid age structure from high Arctic paleolatitudes based on the observations that: (1) extant mammals from high latitudes better express growth lines in their hard tissues than those from lower latitudes, and (2) the occurrence of accentuated growth banding in teeth from Arctic dinosaurs. We examined the long bones in the specimens of Pachyrhinosaurus sp. from the early Maastrichtian of northern Alaska, and found conspicuous osseous banding. Histological analysis of the spacing, structure, pattern and numbers of these bands in the femur of a very large specimen suggests that they are not a taphonomic artefact, rather they appear to reflect annual growth cycling. Counts and measurements of the growth zones suggest that the animal showed rapid linear growth early in ontogeny, sexual maturity in perhaps the 9th year of life, and that it died in the 19th year of life. Our data adds to a growing body of evidence that a genetically distinct northern dinosaurian fauna existed at high paleolatitudes in Alaska during the Late Cretaceous.