Death and Fossilization

Question 1

Taphonomy

Answer 1

Study of all natural processes that involves an organism after it dies, this includes how it decays, is scavanged by other organisms, becomes fossilized and erodes.

Question 2

Boat and float

Answer 2

the idea that the carcasse of even large animals can easily float and be transported by shallow and weakly flowing water

Question 3

Why is finding complete dinosoaur skeletons rare?

Answer 3

They become disarticulated by…
- carnivours likely ate the remains of other dinosaurs
- water currents can carry different portions of a skeleton to different locations
- prolonged exposure to sunlight can weaken and disintegrate the bones
- some skeletons become partcially buried
- skeltons can be trampled by animals

Question 4

Plastic deformation

Answer 4

occurs when pressure causes the shape of a buried fossil to be changed such that even when pressure is later removed, the fossil does not return to its original shape

Question 5

What needs to occur for a bone to be fossilized?

Answer 5

The bone needs to be buried.

Question 6

What type of enviroment is most common for a dinosaur to become fossilized?

Answer 6

Wet enviroments in low elevation (most likely for the bones to become buried)

Question 7

Fluvial deposits

Answer 7

River and stream deposits

Question 8

Lacustrine Deposits

Answer 8

lake deposits

Question 9

What enviroment is most likely to preserve soft tissue/ hair/ feathers?

Answer 9

Lakes (lacustrine deposits) because of the limited water movement

Question 10

Aerolin deposits

Answer 10

Wind based deposits

Question 11

Sedimentary Rock

Answer 11

Rocks that form were mineral and organic particles accumulate to become either cemented or compacted together

Question 12

Igneous Rock

Answer 12

form when magma and laa cools

Question 13

Metamorphic Rock

Answer 13

Sedimentary and Igneous Rock that are changed by heat and pressure

Question 14

Sedimentology

Answer 14

The science of how sedimentary rocks form

Question 15

Mudstone/shale

Answer 15

Sedimentary rocks that form from mud and silt; found in former lake bottoms

Question 16

Sandstone

Answer 16

Sedimentary rock that forms from sand; indicate a former beach, river channel, or ocean floor enviroment.

Question 17

Coal

Answer 17

Special kind of sedimentary rock that is the fossilized and compressed remains of plants; indicates a former swampy enviroment.

Question 18

Limestone

Answer 18

Sedimentary rock usually formed from the accumulation of shells and exoskeletons of small marine invertebrates; almost always indicates a former shallow marine enviroment

Question 19

What are the different types of dinosaur fossil preservation?

Answer 19

Permealization: occurs when the empty internal spaces of a bone are filled with minerals
Replacement: occurs when the original bone gradually decays and minerals fill the space that the bones once occupied

Question 20

Where are dinosaur fossils most commonly found?

Answer 20

Modern enviroments where there is considerable recent erosion (not a lot of vegitaton)- the Badlands

Question 21

Badlands

Answer 21

arid enviroments where vegitation is sparse, where erosion rates are high and where large expanses of acient sedimentary rocks are exposed

Question 22

Overburden

Answer 22

The rock and earth that covers a fossil specimen and that must be removed before the full extent of the specimen can be judged (takes large tools to remove)

Question 23

Bonebeds

Answer 23

Accumulation of the bones of many dinosaurs

Question 24

What does the amount of abrasion on a dinosaur bone tell us about a dinosaur?

Answer 24

give a relative sense for how far the bones may have been transported by flowing water.

Question 25

What does the orientation of a dinosaur bone tell us about a dinosaur?

Answer 25

The orientation of the long bones tells us the direction the carcass was flowing after death; if they are aligned in the same direction it can tell us what way the water was flowing.

Question 26

What are the order of events from the end of a dinosaurs life up to the collection of their bones?

Answer 26

1. Death
2. Burial
3. Fossilization
4. Erosion
5. Excavation