Re: careless editing

[Phillip Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 08:30:49 -0400 Scott <hmwh@together.net> writes:
> Reading *Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs* just sent to me by my daughter.
> (Publications International Ltd, copyright 2002.) Got no further 
> than page 7
> when I found this: "...scientists have been trying to complete the 
> picture
> of dinosaurs and their lives. All we have left of these amazing 
> creatures
> are their fossil bones."


We have living birds, too.
And fossil poop.
And fossil integument.
And fossilized stomach contents.
And the paleoecologic setting of an area.

So, if you exclude all of the above, then yes, all we have to study are
their fossil bones.  ;-)


> even the compilers of this encyclopedia know that's not true 
> because
> on page 9 they talk about trackways.


Oh yeah.  And trackways.


> The writer [one of the writers?] says, "Dinosaur trackways, 
> or
> fossilized footprints, are more common than dinosaur bones..."
> 
> This seems a dubious assertion to me. Is there any basis for it in 
> fact?


It depends on the particular rock formation and the particular locality
and the particular facies.  The Hell Creek Formation is loaded with
dinosaur bones, but no dinosaur tracks have been found (to my knowledge).
 There are other formations that are peppered with dinosaur tracks but no
bones have been found.

<pb>
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