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Okay so I found this specimen at the Taughannock Falls in Ithaca New York. I found it at the edge of the gorge which consists of shale, composed of slit and clay that fell onto lime mud and hardened into rock. I've done some research and it appears to be a Brittle star trace fossil formed by their arm grazing the sand floor. Although, these Brittle Star fish traces are known as "Pteridichnites biseriatus" and they have only been discovered so far in upper Devonian shales out in western and eastern Virginia. I'm not an expert but to my knowledge the Ithaca geological formation is Devonian and was slowly covered by sand. Is it possible that the Brittle Star fish once roamed in the ancient sea now known as "Taughannock falls" today? Because a research team is trying to find this specimen and they are wondering if anyone has discovered it. Edit: Im referring to the dotted trackway. check this link out for more information. http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/news/Pteridichnites.htm
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Could Sauropods have actually been really aggressive?
jikohr posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hi everyone! I've been wondering this for a while and am curious if this has ever been proposed in major discourse or publications. Every time I see Sauropods depicted whether it's a movie or a documentary they are always depicted as gentle giants, basically herbivorous land whales. You leave them alone and they leave you alone. But as far as I know with modern animals, the herbivores are usually the most dangerous. Elephants and Hippos are often used as modern analogs since they are substantially larger than any predator around and they kill more people than the apex predator of their ecosystems and are know to be really aggressive even though their size should be enough to protect them most of the time. Could the same have been true for Sauropods? Obviously we will never know for certain since we can't observe these animals and of course there are major differences between them and large mammals, mostly the large mammals being substantially more intelligent, but then could it be argued that an animal that relied more on instinct could be more aggressive since it wouldn't be as capable of decision making and would just have a knee jerk response upon seeing a predator? Kinda like a cat with a laser pointer except it's a 40 ton dinosaur going Incredible Hulk almost every time it sees a Theropod and just immediately running over and stomping on it. There's a lot of "coulds" in all that I know. I guess this is more of a question of has the idea of aggressive Sauropods ever been something considered by the scientific community, and if it was dismissed than why? Any insight is appreciated as always!- 13 replies
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