Re: Death poses

["Allan Turner" <trexturner@hotmail.com>]

You win the argument. As far as I know, the going consensus is that after 
death, but before being completely buried (and ultimately fossilized), the 
ligaments and tendons in the animal's neck dry out and contract, pulling the 
head back over the body. This can be seen in many dinosaur skeletons, aside 
from those from Solnhofen, and is not exclusive to theropods. Many 
hadrosaurs from Alberta exhibit this classic "death pose," as can be seen in 
in situ displays, including those at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller 
and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

At least your friend didn't argue what was once put forth, that this 
phenomena is the result of agonizing death throes as the animal reared back 
its head to utter one final scream of defeat.

Allan Turner
Assembly Program Educator
Earth Rangers
Toronto, ON, Canada


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Julia Heathcote" <astrodon@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: astrodon@hotmail.com
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Death poses
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 13:16:39 +0000

Hello list,

Can anyone tell me what the general consensus is on why a lot of dinosaurs
are preserved with their heads and necks bent backwards to lie along their
spines?  A friend and I have been discussing this in the context of a cast
of *Compsognathus* from Solnhofen.  I was under the impression that it was a
result of decay and shrinkage of the tendons along the spine after death,
but my friend believes it was due to the increased salinity in the Solnhofen
lagoon.  I also only recall seeing this feature in theropod skeletons.  This
may be a bias towards showing only theropod dinosaurs in their death
position in museum displays!

Needless to say, the friendship is not dependent on the answer!

Julia

Julia Heathcote
Gonville and Caius College
University of Cambridge
Cambridge CB2 1TA


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