Presenting the #Jurassic display from the Utah Natural History Museum highlighting finds from the remarkable Cleveland Lloyd #Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ) for this #FossilFriday. Here a group of #Allosaurus are trying to kill one giant, long-necked #Barosaurus. #Paleontology #Mesozoic #Science 🧵 1/ - ThreadSky

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palaeosingh.bsky.social • 38 days ago

Presenting the #Jurassic display from the Utah Natural History Museum highlighting finds from the remarkable Cleveland Lloyd #Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ) for this #FossilFriday. Here a group of #Allosaurus are trying to kill one giant, long-necked #Barosaurus.

#Paleontology #Mesozoic #Science

🧵 1/

Comments

palaeosingh.bsky.social•38 days ago

All of the dinosaurs in the photo & many others (>70 individuals) were recovered from the CLDQ. The concentration of so many #dinosaurs in one small space has intrigued palaeontologists and there’s been a few different hypotheses proposed for how all those dinosaurs ended up there 🤔

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palaeosingh.bsky.social•38 days ago

One popular hypothesis is that this was an ancient ‘predator trap’: the large herbivorous dinosaurs (🦕) came to a watering hole to drink, got stuck in the mud & died, attracting carnivores (🦖), that then also got stuck, attracting more carnivores and so on.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social•38 days ago

Another idea is that these animals were congregating around a watering hole that dried up during a particularly long drought, and the dinosaurs died of thirst waiting for the rains to return & replenish the water 💧

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palaeosingh.bsky.social•38 days ago

In any case, the site has yielded an incredible array of Late #Jurassic dinosaurs, particularly carnivores. While many different species of carnivorous dinosaur (e.g., #Ceratosaurus) are present, #Allosaurus make up the overwhelming majority of individuals found at the CLDQ.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social•38 days ago

Why are so many Allosaurus found at the CLDQ? - Was Allosaurus really that abundant? Or is there some sort of sampling bias? Are we seeing the remains of Allosaurus ‘packs’?
It’s plenty of food for thought for #palaeontologists researching the palaeofauna of the #MorrisonFormation.

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