Geoscience Reference
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side the artificial burrow chamber first, then decanted. Out of the thirteen times he
did this, six resulted in the same sort of jumbled distribution of bones in the burrow
chamber that Dave had observed with the original
Oryctodromeus
bones and their
sedimentary matrix. Four of these arrangements were made with the rabbit bones
already in the den, and two came from outside, with the bones in the bucket.
Fourtotwo:wewin!Exceptnotreally,becausescienceisnotagameinwhich
simple scores decide which hypothesis is the better one. These results still meant
the bones feasibly could have been deposited into the burrow and that the
Orycto-
dromeus
bones could have come from somewhere else outside of it. Woodruff then
tried to disprove this hypothesis by scrutinizing the original
Oryctodromeus
bones,
seeing whether they held any nicks, scratches, or dents from having been bounced
along the bottom ofa stream. Many dinosaur bones bear such evidence, telling how
those parts may have traveled far from the spot where a dinosaur died. However, in
this instance the bones had no such marks. This lack of evidence implied that the
bones of this probable parent and offspring did not travel far at all. They either died
together just outside of the burrow, or in it.
But wait: Could the burrow have belonged to some unknown burrowing pred-
ator that scored a super-sized meal one day by taking down an adult and two ju-
veniles of the same species? Then maybe it dragged these bodies into its burrow to
nosh on them, left its partially consumed dinner in the burrow, and was conveni-
entlysomewhereelsewhenitsprey'sboneswereburiedbythefloodingofanearby
river? For that idea to have more support, though, more trace fossils were needed,
such as toothmarks on the bones. Yet none were to be found. Thus, considering the
happenstanceofbonesfromanadultandtwojuvenilesofthesamedinosaurspecies
being together, no signs of long-distance transport of those bones, no evidence of
anything chomping on the bones, and all of the aforementioned ichnological evid-
enceshowingamatchbetweentheburrowmakerandtheburrow,thehypothesisthat
this
Oryctodromeus cubicularis
was a burrowing, denning dinosaur still stands. So
far, so good.
