MANAGING PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN ALASKA’S NATIONAL PARKS: CHALLENGES, NEW TOOLS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF PALEOZOIC FOSSILS IN KENAI FJORDS NATIONAL PARK

Alaska National Parks are home to a rich variety of paleontological resources, ranging from 700 million-year-old microfossils to megafauna from the last ice age. However, effectively managing these significant, non-renewable resources presents many challenges: the amount of fossiliferous strata is vast; the geology of Alaska is complex; fossils occur in remote and rugged areas; and many fossils are uniquely preserved in permafrost that is actively degrading. To address these challenges and facilitate successful management strategies, existing paleontological information from both published and unpublished sources is being synthesized into an Alaska Region paleontology database.

Having this information in an easily-queried format has already prompted new and important paleontology projects in Alaska’s parks, including a field-based fossil survey in Kenai Fjords National Park. In the summer of 2016, regional and park scientists discovered the first Paleozoic fossils inside Kenai Fjords. The fossils were sourced from limestone blocks from the Jurassic-Cretaceous McHugh Complex (subduction mélange) and include crinoids, bivalves, fusulinids, ostracods, uniserial foraminifera, and bryozoans. The bivalves belong to the family Alatoconchidae, which are large Permian bivalves that have only ever been found in the Western Hemisphere in limestone blocks from the McHugh Complex. Additionally, many of the fusulinids belong to the genus Yabeina. Both the alatoconchids and the fusulinids are indicative of a distinctive faunal realm that developed in and around the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the Permian. The presence of Tethyan fossils show that the limestone blocks in the McHugh Complex are exotic with respect to North America, and likely represent the remains of Permian atolls formed in the Panthalassa Ocean. The results of this study have been recorded in the paleontology database, which demonstrates the usefulness of this dynamic tool not only in identifying projects but also in documenting work already completed for future resource managers. Future plans include finding the in-situ limestone block(s) that sourced these new, exciting fossils to understand the extent of fossil resources in the park and identify any potential management concerns.