Advances in Paleontology New Ways to Study Ancient Life
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Taphonomy Author Profile  Taphonomy: The Study of Preservation
"The fossil skeletons that we found were not articulated, which
means that the bones had come apart at some point before the
fossilization process began. Otherwise, we would have found
neatly arranged skeletons instead of jumbles of bones.
Furthermore, there were no marks or breaks showing that the
bones had been cracked or chewed by predators prior to
fossilization. These bits of evidence led me to think that after
their deaths the babies must have lain rotting in the nest,
slowly being denuded of flesh, and then, in the second stage of
decay, their skeletons must have come apart as the connecting
tendons and ligaments disintegrated." Jack Horner Digging
Dinosaurs (p.55) Dispersed bones from a hawk aerie in Idaho.
Details  What does preservation mean?  Preservation is a very
broad category in paleontology. It is the study of t