Scientists investigate mass dinosaur die-off in western Canada
A herd of centrosaurs (a type of horned dinosaur) drowning in a flood millions of years ago in what is now Alberta, as depicted in this illustration. They left behind what could be the world's largest dinosaur graveyard.
updated 6:13 p.m. ET June 23, 2010
Scientists have revealed what may be the world's largest dinosaur graveyard.
The dinosaurs may have been part of a mass die-off resulting from a monster storm, comparable to today's hurricanes, which struck what was then a coastal area.
The findings could help solve a mystery concerning why the badlands of western Canada are so rich in dinosaur fossils.
The "mega-bonebed," which consists of 14 smaller bonebeds, lies in northern Alberta near Hilda, Canada, right by the border with Saskatchewan. The graveyard was actually discovered in 1997, but confirmation of the discovery's size was detailed this month in the book "New Perspectives On Horned Dinosaurs" (Indiana University Press, 2010).
Alberta is extraordinarily rich in fossils, such as those of duck-billed dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs including Triceratops, ankylosaurs, raptors related to Velociraptor, and tyrannosaurids such as Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. The area was home to a remarkable diversity of other animals as well, including birds, pterosaurs, alligators, turtles, lizards and mammals — in fact, scientists recently found mammal tooth marks on dinosaur bones in Alberta.
Thousands die in flood
Back when these centrosaurs lived, Alberta was warm and lush, and encompassed lowlands on the western coast of the Western Interior Seaway, a vast inland sea that divided what is now North America in half. The way the fossils are linked together in the same layers of earth within these bonebeds suggests all these centrosaurs were wiped out simultaneously.
The likely culprit in this scenario was a catastrophic storm, which could quickly have routinely made the waters flood up as high as 12 to 15 feet (3.6 to 4.6 meters), if experiences with modern floodplains are any guide.
"The flooding could have reached more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the shoreline," Eberth told LiveScience. "The landscape basically just drowns."
The flat area would have provided no high ground for escape, leading to thousands of animals drowning in the rising waters.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: MSNBC
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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:
Em um contexto de justificação teórica, qual a diferença de COMO se aferiu este imenso cataclisma dos outros relatos de catástrofes registrados em textos míticos??? Questão somente de interpretação dos dados empíricos ou preconceito contra determinadas interpretações de subjetividades religiosas/míticas?
Eu? Eu não consigo ver muita diferença científica não, mas... caldo de galinha e bom senso não faz mal a ninguém.
Fui, nem sei por que, cruz, credo, pensando nos rumores de anjos na epistemologia...
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