Re: sauropod quantity

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/18/99 10:52:56 AM EST, sarima@ix.netcom.com writes:

<< Not merely possible, virtually certain.  Almost any model of taphonomic
 processes shows a relative impoverishment of small, delicate forms. >>


There are thousands and thousands of footprints of small chicken-size to even 
sparrow-size(!) dinosaurs known from the Triassic and Jurassic, yet not one 
good bone specimen of any such form has ever been identified. Martin Lockley 
and Paul Olsen and probably others (Ellenberger) have noted these in several 
publications; see, e.g., The Eternal Trail by Lockley. The larger dinosaurs 
we know from skeletal material are like the visible tip of an iceberg.