Researchers from Alaska and Florida said that they have found rare fossils of a plant-eating dinosaur. The fossils found in the high Arctic of Alaska can change scientists' view of seeing dinosaur physiology.

The researchers detailed in the report that fossilized bones found along Alaska's Colville River were from a distinct species of hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur.

The team said that the recently found species is not linked to hadrosaurs that were previously identified in Canada and lower 48 states. It is the fourth species unique to northern Alaska, said the researchers.

The recent find supports the theory of Arctic-adapted dinosaurs that lived almost 69 million years ago in temperatures that were far cooler than the tropical or equatorial temperatures.

Gregory Erickson, a professor of biological science at Florida State, said in a statement that northern hadrosaurs would have endured months of winter darkness and probably snow.

"It was certainly not like the Arctic today up there - probably in the 40s was the mean annual temperature. Probably a good analogy is thinking about British Columbia", said Erickson.

The team said that in the next approach, they will try to figure out how the dinosaurs survived. There are possibilities that the animals lived in the high Arctic year-round, just like muskoxen and caribou live today.

Erickson said it is hard to imagine that the small, juvenile dinosaurs were physically capable of long-distance seasonal migration. The climate was much less harsh in the Late Cretaceous than it is today, making sustainability easier, he added.

The researchers have dubbed the creature 'Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis'. The name means 'ancient grazer' and was chosen by scientists with assistance from speakers of Inupiaq, the language of Alaska Inupiat Eskimos.