Re: New Dromaeosaur Specimen

[Josh Smith <smithjb@sas.upenn.edu>]

Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette wrote:

> Not that I have any idea what I'm talking about, but I think it would
> depend upon the exact chemical nature of the fossil.  It would have to
> be composed of something that the acid could differentiate from the
> limestone, wouldn't it? Actually, it's one of the reasons I asked
> about what's really there since many of the Chinese fossils are not
> "mineralized" to as great an extent as many, say, American fossils.
>
>
> Danvarner@aol.com wrote:
>
>>
>> In a message dated 4/26/01 12:13:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
>> dinosaur@dinosaur.org writes:
>>
>>
>> << As I understand it, the farmers who found the specimen lucked out
>> and had
>> the slab split exactly down the longitudinal center of the
>> specimen.>>
>>
>>
>>       That's pretty lucky, all right! Here's an interesting
>> question: would
>> it be possible to acid-prep away the limestone and reveal the full
>> plumage? DV
>
These are good points, but unfortunately they are sort of moot with
respect to the feathered dinosaurs because nothing in the Yixian
Formation is preserved in limestone.

-Josh

--
Josh Smith
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
University of Pennsylvania
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