Re: SAUROPOD STONES

[Danvarner@aol.com]

I'm living dangerously here, since I do not have Dave Gillette's excellent
book, _Seismosaurus:The Earth Shaker_ at hand. If I remember correctly, he
suspected that the gastroliths were strewn about by the activity of carnivores
or scavengers and that the stones spilled out of the carcass as it was being
torn apart. Rather like marbles spilling out of a sock.
     The idea of an enormous sauropod corpse swelling in the Jurassic sun is
quite intriguing however. I've been around steer blimps in South Dakota.
Sometimes too close. It's something like mustard gas. A sauropod zeppelin must
have been incredible. Doug Henderson did a drawing of an apatosaurus in this
condition being visited by ceratosaurs in the Czerkas Global Dinosaur book, I
believe. Dan Varner.