Hell Creek climate

[Infinity Blade]

I'm a bit confused about claims regarding the former climate of the Hell Creek Formation. According to a study by Arens & Allen (2014), the average annual temperature was no greater than 14^oC (counting overlapping estimation errors of the two different analyses conducted), which isn't what I'd consider particularly warm. However, the project lead for Saurian (which has done a lot of research on the ecosystem) apparently also said that, on average, Hell Creek was probably even hotter than modern Texas. He said that in terms of ecology, it was "a bit like a mix between the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, the dry pinelands of Georgia and Alabama, and the bayous of northern Florida."

Can anyone help me here?

[Deleted]

specialpapers.gsapubs.org/content/503/173.abstract

And let's just say that the project lead of Saurian and Saurian itself has some...well...questionable positions to say the very least.

Edmontosaurus hand claws, their genericometer, their metal-rich-bodied Ankylosaurus, support for Toroceratops, just to name a few.

[Infinity Blade]

their metal-rich-bodied Ankylosaurus

Where's this?

Also, I already mentioned the paper you posted a link to. I was just confused by the conflicting views people seem to have claimed or found.

[Deleted]

Jan 13, 2017 2:43:36 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

their metal-rich-bodied Ankylosaurus

Where's this?

Also, I already mentioned the paper you posted a link to. I was just confused by the conflicting views people seem to have claimed or found.

The conflicting views I know of don't really have much basis AFAIK. That's the only paper directly dealing with Hell Creek climate I could find.

Regarding metal rich Ankylosaurus: They have their Ankylosaurus at ~7 tonnes, while a GDI of the skeletal they used as reference (GetAwayTrike's Ankylosaurus) yielded between ~3650 liters without armor. Saurian isn't actually as completely rigorous as they seem to be when you actually go into their community and see

Ankylosaurus GDI table:
Ankylosaurus GDI sections: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/226476167228686346/251147105496858628/Black_Hole_Potato.zip

[Infinity Blade]

The conflicting views I know of don't really have much basis AFAIK. That's the only paper directly dealing with Hell Creek climate I could find.

I just learned about this:

Leaf margin analysis of dicotyledonous angiosperms from the Hell Creek Formation indicates that the temperature ranged from temperate (mean annual temperature of 10^oC) low in the formation to nearly tropical (mean annual temperature of 23^oC) near the top of the formation (Johnson & Wilf, 1996). The abundance of palms and increase in species richness per locality in the upper portions of the formation also indicates that the warmest climates of Hell Creek time occurred during the final 300,000 years of the Cretaceous.

source

So maybe the 7-11^oC temperature range may apply to Hell Creek in the older days while it became warmer as time went by.