RE: Sinornithoides in DA... the first Sleeping Dragon.

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> MariusRomanus@aol.com
>
> And that's what I'm questioning. From how I understand it, the paper doesn't
> equivically state, "Mei was buried in ash like Pompeii". Instead, it calls the
> Lujiatun beds alluvial deposits mainly comprised of tuffaceous conglomerate
> debris flows, sandstones, and mudstones. This would be a mixed
> pyroclastic-epiclastic deposit... Not a simple ash fall. It goes on to say 
> the most
> fossiliferous localities are preserved in tuffaceous ashes up to 3m thick. 
> Does this
> apply to Mei? Such instances are considered Pompeii-like events, though not 
> all
> are volcanic in origin. The article never states which of those types of 
> burial
> was the modus operendi... It says only that sedimentology is consistent with
> a life-pose. I'm assuming, as you have, that one should take this as meaning
> "ash fall". It doesn't make sense for it to have been a wave of vaporized 
> rock,
> even though as written, the Lujiatun beds are mostly associated with "debris
> flows". This is what I was curious about.

All this, however, is actually requires precise detailed knowledge of the 
stratigraphic section of that particular site, with the
horizon(s) of fossil-bearing bones indicated. To my knowledge, such a strat 
section has not been published.

So this is one where we really do have to wait for the paper, or at least the 
section, before we can reject any particular
hypotheses.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
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