Dinosaur denizens of the dark.

Fossils of a duck-billed dinosaur have turned up in Antarctica, recalling a time 66 million years ago when the now-frozen continent bore forests and a bountiful ecosystem.

In January, researchers working on Vega Island near the Antarctic Peninsula discovered a tooth and toe bones of a hadrosaur, formerly known to have lived only in the Americas, says Michael O. Woodburne of the University of California, Riverside. From past finds, paleontologists know that the Vega Island area was home to ankylosaurs and other herbivorous dinosaurs. On the Antarctic mainland, researchers have unearthed the bones of much older, carnivorous dinosaurs (SN: 10/23/93, p. 261).

Along with the hadrosaur remains, the Vega Island site has Yielded fossils of marine reptiles and a flock of four or five different birds, says Woodburne, the scientist in charge of the project.

The Antarctic finds raise questions about the lifestyle of these animals during winter. Although the climate was warmer during the Cretaceous period, when the hadrosaurs lived, Antarctica was situated near the pole and would have been dark for several months each year. Researchers do not know whether the dinosaurs were adapted to living in the prolonged night or whether they migrated along a land bridge to South America, says Woodburne.