Something About This Mysterious Fossil Graveyard Was Fishy

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The thriller has haunted paleontologists for many years: What explains a fossilized mass loss of life occasion within the rocks of the West Union Canyon in Nevada? Much more mysterious: Why are the victims all giant predatory marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs that swam the seas whereas dinosaurs walked the earth?

One analysis group says in a paper printed Monday within the journal Present Biology that this enigma in stone has lastly been solved.

The reptilian graveyard was as soon as a habitat for whale-size ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis. Some 230 million years in the past, it was “this shallow tropical ocean,” stated Randall Irmis, a paleontologist on the Pure Historical past Museum of Utah and an writer of the research. “Now we’re in the midst of the Nice Basin within the excessive desert, on the foothills of the Shoshone Mountains.”

The canyon’s most well-known cluster of corpses, a grouping of at the very least seven skeletons often called Quarry 2, might be visited at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Scientists have speculated in regards to the ichthyosaurs of Quarry 2 since they have been first excavated within the Fifties by Charles Camp, a Berkeley paleontologist. However Dr. Irmis and colleagues found in 2014 that different ghastly groupings had occurred within the canyon at totally different factors in historical past, spanning lots of of hundreds of years. This wasn’t only one case of mass loss of life, however many, and the entire victims gave the impression to be grownup ichthyosaurs.

The researchers used numerous strategies, together with 3-D scans that digitally reconstructed the fossils, to methodically eradicate hypotheses for a way the titanic animals met their finish. The primary suspect: mass stranding occasions, like these seen in whales at this time. “It doesn’t match the sedimentology that we discover,” stated Nicholas Pyenson, a paleontologist on the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past in Washington, D.C., and an writer of the research. “There’s no seashore deposits, there’s no tidal flats.” As an alternative, he stated, the rocks recommend that the realm would have been submerged in over 300 toes of water.

To rule out poisoning or asphyxiation from, say, volcanic eruptions, the group assessed ranges of mercury and oxygen preserved within the rock and didn’t discover something suspicious. The one different unusual factor in regards to the canyon was the shortage of different preserved life-forms, like fish or different varieties of ichthyosaur. Dr. Pyenson stated they discovered solely Shonisaurus and nothing else, not even prey that the carnivorous reptiles might have dined on.

They lastly discovered a smoking gun the place the fossil detectives least anticipated it — hiding within the dusty cupboards of museum collections. By poking round previous specimens for clues, the group discovered tiny Shonisaurus bones from the canyon that couldn’t belong to adults, together with a fossil embryo tucked into an grownup rib cage that Charles Camp himself first excavated however by no means formally described. Additional area work on the web site turned up extra bone materials from embryonic and new child ichthyosaurs. Fairly than a graveyard of mass loss of life, the canyon as a substitute appears to have served as a wellspring of mass life: a birthing floor.

“I feel this was a spot the place big ichthyosaurs got here to present beginning,” Dr. Pyenson stated, much like how at this time’s ocean giants — whales and sharks — routinely migrate from one place the place they feed to a different the place they offer beginning.

Though the oceans differed 230 million years in the past, ichthyosaurs “most likely undertook the identical habits,” he stated. The animals didn’t die from some mass disaster, however slightly died at a traditional price from numerous causes, their skeletons grouping collectively in loss of life as a result of that’s how they behaved in life.

The concept that ichthyosaurs lived and traveled collectively like whales isn’t new, however “that is the primary research to essentially display it in a plausible and supported method,” stated Erin Maxwell, a paleontologist on the State Museum of Pure Historical past Stuttgart in Germany, who was not concerned with the research. Dr. Maxwell hopes the group will subsequent have a look at the bones of the brand new specimens, particularly the embryos and newborns, in additional element.

Although this case is now closed, like several good caper it’s ripe for sequels. “There’s quite a bit in regards to the biology of whale-sized reptiles we nonetheless don’t know,” Dr. Pyenson stated. This contains the most important thriller of all: why they went extinct 88 million years in the past, tens of hundreds of thousands of years earlier than dinosaurs on land. Keep tuned to see if any meddling paleontologists (and their pesky scientific methodology) clear up it subsequent!

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