Re: Velociraptor scavenged azhdarchid pterosaur

[Denver Fowler <df9465@yahoo.co.uk>]

From: Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org>


My pet hypothesis on the fighting dinosaurs specimen is that they were swept 
together by the sand flow and bit and clawed at one another in sheer panic.

>This is an astronomically improbable event to capture in a fossil, but this 
>hypothesis has the advantage of explaining ALL of the known evidence - 
>incorporating the torrential rainstorm and sand flow into the scenario. 
>Without this all the other scenarios fail to explain the coincidence of the 
>sand flow happening right as any predation/nest predation event was happening.

I like Nick Longrich's suggestion of burrow collapse for many of the 
Protoceratops specimens. Under this scenario, a Velociraptor venturing down a 
Proto burrow might well find itself in the depicted scenario. This hypothesis 
might have been testable on the original fossil, if the burrow structure was 
preserved somehow. Maybe if the original site was revisited there might be some 
part of a burrow intact... although if the burrow collapsed (rather than being 
filled in like the Oryctodromaeus burrows) it might not be there anymore.



 
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Denver Fowler
df9465@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.denverfowler.com
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