Neohipparion affine,
Slender 3-toed horse
Dr. Mike Voorhies: Although not evidence of ancient hostility, there is another example of intertwined fossil skeletons you might be interested in. It's on display at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Park here in Nebraska, where I am writing this. A female three-toed horse (Neohipparion affine) has the skeleton of a colt of the same species (almost certainly her own offspring) sheltered between her legs. These two skeletons are part of a mass-death assemblage of 12 million-year-old animals killed and buried by volcanic ash.
Whole communities of ape-like creatures may have been killed in volcanic disasters that struck East Africa 18 million years ago... the once active volcano Kisingiri... contained fossils of what is believed to be a forerunner of humans called Proconsul... they may have been caught by a pyroclastic flow... the abundance of the hominoid fossils may represent "death assemblages" -- whole populations wiped out simultaneously by "glowing cloud" eruptions.
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I've gotta get to my household drudgery, so someone else will have to track down Dr. Jack Horner's dino-prairie up in (I think) Montana. |
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We’ve visited Ashfall several times and have always found it fascinating. It’s rare that you can get so close to the exhibits being unearthed. Thank you Dr. Voorhies and your collegues.
Lew, in Kansas