Two to Tango
Fossils--even fossils of large animals with heavy bones--are vanishingly uncommon. I read somewhere that in an animal species lineage, and a good one archeologically mind you, a fossil in the series was unearthed once somewhere in the whole world for every million years of the creature's existance. And so that makes this two-for-one find all the more remarkable. And beyond that, they were preserved instantly in the dance of predator and prey in attack and defense position.
"Amongst all the fossils ever found in the world, there might be nothing more bizarre than this specimen. One Protoceratops, a herbivorous (plant-eating) dinosaur, perished in the struggle with a carnivorous theropod, Velociraptor. After their death 80 million years ago, both skeletons were fossilized, then finally unearthed in 1971 in fully articulated forms without having been smashed." (See the pictures!) link
The explanation for how this came to be: the dinosaurs were caught and buried by a sudden sandstorm. That leaves me unsatisfied. Whatever happened had to be so instanteous that it was faster than these animal's reflexes. And it had to leave them dead perfectly in place, so no large displacement like mudslide, landslide or flood works here. Ideas?
Comments
I have seen pictures of the fossil you are talking about and I believe they say that a claw of the predator was some how sticking into the prey. In the heat of battle, in a fight to the death it is not unusual to ignore all that is going on around you. I could see how these two animals, one intent on killing and one intent on staying alive, would be so focused on each other that they miss what is going on around them.
Posted by: cindy lee | January 23, 2006 7:19 AM
I read recently that the entire fossil record of man will fit into the back of a standard pick up truck. Not surpirsing that there are more questions than answers about our time on this planet.
Posted by: COD | January 23, 2006 8:51 AM
How long does it take a sandstorm to completely cover something? Seems like the survivor of the fight would have struggled against the sand. Maybe they were struck by lightning in the sandstorm.
Posted by: M. Lawless | January 23, 2006 11:02 AM
Bird flu! Sorry, couldn't resist ;)
A standard pick up truck? More questions than answers? I think a more objective way of stating fact would be to say that over the past, oh, 100 years or so, the world community of scientists have compiled fossil specimens from +/- 5,000 Homonids. While the volume of Homonid fossils might indeed fit inside a large pickup truck bed, there is a wealth of knowledge in each specimen and those fossils along with the growing volume of related non-Homonid fossil specimens lays the groundwork for what I like to call the Law of Evolution :)
Sean
Posted by: Sean Pecor | January 23, 2006 2:55 PM
M.Lawlwess: I thought the same thing until I visited Pompei.
Remember Mt St. Helens?
A sandstorm can also displace oxygen very quickly...so the two dinos might have only had seconds until they blacked out and were buried and suffocated.
Just as skiers caught by avalanche usually die of suffocation, not crush injuries.
Posted by: BJ | January 23, 2006 11:10 PM
So, Fred, what do YOU think? We want to hear your ideas!
Posted by: M. Lawless | January 24, 2006 10:54 PM
'Pole Shift' is my guess or a asteroid impact. Something that would immediately change the weather.
Was there any core work done to see if the magnetics changed during the same time? I looked at the link site but didn't see any info on that.
Posted by: Kim | January 29, 2006 2:03 PM