Dinosaur Death Pits

Dinosaur Death Pits from the Jurassic of China. 2010. D.A. Eberth, et al. Palaios 25: 112-125.


Two small Guanlong wucaii dinosaurs struggle to escape a muddy pit in what is now China during the late Jurassic period. Painting by Michael Skerpnick

ABSTRACT [edit]: Three newly discovered bonebeds from the Shishugou Formation of Xinjiang, China, are unusual in preserving vertically stacked and articulated to associated skeletons of at least 18 small, non-avian theropod dinosaurs in pits that are 1–2m deep.

There is no evidence that the pits were discrete depressions in the topography that filled through time. Rather, they appear to have been highly localized areas of liquefaction caused by large-dinosaur (possibly sauropod) trampling of saturated sediments.

Evidence indicates that the small theropods, and some other small vertebrates, became mired and died in these mud-filled pits. High quality skeletal preservation suggests that most individuals were buried within days to months after their deaths. Carcasses were buried successively, coming to rest above previously buried individuals.

Given the large sizes of the pits relative to the small body sizes of the vertebrates contained within them, we conclude that small vertebrates (3m long and 1 m tall) were particularly susceptible to miring at these sites.

Although the small, presumably herbivorous ceratosaur, Limusaurus inextricabilis, dominates the combined small theropod assemblage from these bonebeds, there is no evidence that any biological features other than its small size and a large, and possibly, gregarious local population were responsible for its becoming mired in large numbers.

A bias for small theropods in these bonebeds, compared to their relatively low abundance in the overall Shishugou Formation fauna, underscores that small theropods are underrepresented in Mesozoic fossil assemblages collected from other ancient alluvial and paludal settings.

Read the story at National Geographic News