Re: new

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

John Hunt wrote:

> I did realise the microraptor fossils were dead, fossils normally are.

Point taken.  But bones can be rearranged or dislocated before or during 
burial.  Thus, postures adopted by specimens in death may not reflect 
postures that the animal was capable of in life.  I was responding to this 
earlier message, from you:

> If the preserved posture could not be achieved in life, then an explanation 
> as to how articulated specimens came to be preserved in this way needs to 
> be forthcoming.

Your comment seemed to imply that the burden of proof was on those who 
argued *against* a sprawling posture for _Microraptor_, because certain 
specimens were preserved in a sprawling posture.  I argued that the 
sprawling posture might in fact be an artefact of preservation.

What we're talking about here is taphonomy, the science of the conditions 
and processes by which organisms become fossilized.

> How would anyone come to be buried with their feet over their head without 
> human intervention?

Again, this comes under the heading of taphonomy.  Without getting too 
macabre, my corpse could be torn apart by predators, and/or my skeleton 
rearranged by the action of water or mud or scavengers such that my foot 
bones end up above my skull.  I can only hope that my final repose will be 
not quite so eventful.



Tim

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