RE: Sauropterygian falls?

[Ken.Carpenter@dmns.org]

There was such a paper that came out in Palaios, as I recall, about
speculating the contribution Mesozoic marine reptiles would make to the
deep sea ecology. I think it came out in 1998 or 1999.

Kenneth Carpenter, Ph.D. 
Curator of Lower Vertebrate Paleontology 
and Chief Preparator 
Department of Earth Sciences 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Blvd. 
Denver, CO 80205 USA

ph: 303-370-6392/ or 6403 
fx: 303-331-6492 

for PDFs of my reprints, info about the Cedar Mtn. Project, etc. see:
https://scientists.dmns.org/sites/kencarpenter/default.aspx



 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Renato Santos
> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 11:00 AM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Sauropterygian falls?
> 
> Dear list members,
> 
> I happened to chance upon an interesting article on Nature 
> (433, 557-668 10 February 2005; pages 566-567) about 
> communities thriving on sunken whale corpses.
> The online version of the article is here 
> http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050207/full/433566a.html
> Perhaps off topic but I can't help wonder what animals would 
> constitute this type of communities in the Mesozoic as there 
> were sauropterygians and ichthyosaurs in those days.
> 
> Now comes the wanton speculation...
> 
> This means if there were these sorts of communities in the 
> Mesozoic any finds of megafaunal fossils in marine sediments 
> will be more rare than they until now are supposed to be, and 
> of course of cetacean fossils in the Cenozoic.
> Though I think since the K-Pg produced a massive dead fall of 
> not only marine animals but also terrestrial ones, that one 
> could find a telltale signature in the sediments of that 
> abyssal bounty.
> 
> Renato Santos
> 
> My online art gallery:
> http://dracontes.deviantart.com
> Comments and critics are appreciated.
> 
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