Kelly M Barnes

Norton Hiller

Academic paper

Alcheringa

34

333-344

The pre-burial history of a partial elasmosaurid plesiosaur skeleton is reconstructed from analysis of the distribution and modification of bones preserved in a calcareous concretionary mass. The specimen lacks the skull, cervical vertebrae, left limb bones and some girdle elements, but the remaining bones are interpreted to have been deposited on the sea floor from a semi-buoyant carcass and their relative positions modified by the action of scavengers. Bioerosive agents caused loss of bone, particularly on joint surfaces and vertebral centra, as the carcass lay exposed on the sea floor, perhaps for several years before burial.

English