Re: Help with long words

[Adam Yates <zooamy@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, Stan Friesen wrote:

> thanatocoenose = "death assemblage" (from "thanatos"="death"). This
> refers to a collection of fossils that formed at the actual place
> of death.

This is not my understanding of the meaning of thanatocoenesis at all. 
Invertebrate palaeontologists use the term to describe an assemblage that 
accumulated after some post mortem transportation. Note that this still 
fits the monospecific bonebeds because thay invariably formed from 
dissarticulated bones from rotted carcasses that had been washed 
downstream from the deathsite. The term biocoenesis ("life assemblage") 
is used to describe a fossil assemblage that is preserved where the 
animals were killed (in the more strict sense the site where they were 
killed would have to be where they were living as well eg. an animal 
preserved in its burrow).

Adam Yates.