week 2

Question 1

define taphonomy

Answer 1

study of all natural processes after an organism dies, incl decay, scavenging, fossilization, etc

Question 2

what is bloat and float?

Answer 2

when an animal dies, its body fills with gas and it can get easily transported by water

Question 3

which of the following reasons may describe why is it hard to find complete dino skeletons? (more than one answer is correct)

• carnivores are messy eaters
• water currents can move body parts away from the rest of the body
• sunlight weakens bones, making them prone to erosion
• can be trampled by animals
• mineral contents can be leached away

Answer 3

all of them lol

Question 4

what is plastic deformation

Answer 4

when pressure causes the shape of a fossil to change, even after the pressure is removed (immense pressure from burying)

Question 5

what are the best environments for fossilization? what are some examples of these environments?

Answer 5

wet environ

Question 6

an animal is about to die. later, we find its fossil. what was the environ of the animal like when it died?
- wet or dry?
- high or low elevation

Answer 6

wet and lower elevation

Question 7

what is the difference between a fluvial and lacustrine deposit?

Answer 7

fluvial is for rivers/streams, lacustrine is for lakes

lacustrine is better at preserving finer details (soft tissue, hair, feathers, etc)

Question 8

what are the terms for former lake and river/stream deposits?

Answer 8

lacustrine and fluvial, respectively

Question 9

are they any marine dinos?

Answer 9

no marine dinos, but dino bones can be found in marine environs bc they get washed out to da ocean

Question 10

desert environments are not good for fossilization. why? if so, how come we find so many fossils in the desert?

Answer 10

fossils aren’t good for fossilization bc aeolian (wind based) deposits are prone to erosion before fossilization occurs

desert environs are often formally wet environs that dried out, meaning that the now sand dunes collapsed on the animal and preserved them under the sand

Question 11

what are the following rocks composed of?
- sedimentary
- igneous
- metamorphic
what rock are we most likely to find fossils in

Answer 11

sedimentary: sediments (sands n shit)

igneous: volcanic rock

metamorphic: rocks that get hit by heat and pressure and transform!

sedimentary rocks are the best for fossilization bc sediments idk

Question 12

how do the following rocks form? where are they found
- mudstone/shale
- sandstone
- coal
- limestone

Answer 12

mudstone/shale: mud + silt
found at lake bottoms

sandstone: sand
found at former beaches, river channels, ocean floors

coal: compressed organic material
found in swampy environments

limestone: accumulation of shells + exoskeletons of marine inverts
found in shallow marine environs

Question 13

what are the two main preservation styles?

Answer 13

premineralization: water soaks into the bone and preserves it

replacement: original bone decays and minerals take up the space, making a cast

Question 14

what are the best environments to find fossils

Answer 14

areas w recent erosion (dry)

badlands are good since they have little vegetation and are high in erosion

Question 15

are vegetations good or bad for fossils

Answer 15

bad since they ground the soil, so soil doesn’t blow away

Question 16

what is overburden

Answer 16

the rocks n shit around a fossil

Question 17

name the tools used in removing overburden

Answer 17

heavy: shovel, pickaxes, jackhammers, bulldozers
light: hand picks, brushes

Question 18

how do u transport a fossil? do u just raw dog it or do u protect it?

Answer 18

1. wrap in protective material
2. cover in strips of burlap and soak in plaster
   this creates a hard protective shell that will preserve the fossil

Question 19

what can a bone tell us?

Answer 19

• disarticulation
• orientation of bone may tell us about river current
• abrasions can tell about travel distance
• presence of tooth marks may indicate predation

Question 20

how can glaciers help us find fossils?

Answer 20

when glaciers recede they clear away lots of vegetation and sediments

Question 21

why is dino park good for finding fossils?

Answer 21

was originally under where a glacier receded –> lots of sediment and vegetation cleared away

also is very dry so sediments will blow away, but this runs the risk of the fossil getting exposed too quickly

Question 22

a animal dies in a desert, a forest, and a mountain. which fossil is most likely to be preserved?

Answer 22

none of them, actually

desert: dry and wind-based depostits –> will likely not cover the dino bones fast enough, so it will erode and weather away

forest: filled w microbes –> will decomp the fossil

mountain: will experience a lot of weatherin –> will decomp the fossil

Question 23

what can long bone alignments tell us?

Answer 23

when the long bones of a fossil line up, it means the water flow of a channel moved it to be like dat

Question 24

what evidence of fossils do we have the most of?

Answer 24

teeth - dinos had hella teeth so they dropped old teeth when they ate

enamel also hardens which makes it good for preserving

Question 25

what are bone beds?

Answer 25

the former mouths of river deposits, where fossils are likely to accumulate

Question 26

what is a airscribe?

Answer 26

a special baby jackhammer meant specifically for getting rid of tough rock on the fossil

Question 27

i found 12 teeth, 2 left femurs, and 6 vertebrae. how many individuals are here?

Answer 27

2 individuals, since there are two left femurs. there is only one left femur per body.

Question 28

bone fragments sure are useless aren’t they!

Answer 28

spiral in bone tells usabout processes that happened while the dinosaur was alive - if the spiral occurred while it was dead, the bone would just break

spirals are shit like tooth chips, bone chips, etc

Question 29

what can we learn from a tooth with a root vs a tooth without a root?

Answer 29

tooth without a root is just normal shedding

tooth with a root indicates some shit went down, bc usually the root gets resorbed
– tooth got ripped out or something

Question 30

what are long bone alignments? if bones are not found in long bone alignment, what does this imply?

Answer 30

long bone alignment occurs due to flowing water - random orientation implies still water alignment