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Unusual Arrangement of Bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada by Mark A

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Unusual Arrangement of Bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada by Mark A GEOLOGY EVIDENCE FOR A TRIASSIC KRAKEN Unusual Arrangement of Bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada by Mark A. S. McMenamin Did a giant kraken drag nine huge ichthyosaurs back to its lair in the Triassic era, where their fossil remains are found today? The author of this hypothesis tells why he thinks so. he Triassic Kraken hypothesis, pre- Tsented to the Geological Society of America at its October annual meeting in Minneapolis (McMenamin and McMe- namin 2011), generated an enormous amount of attention on Internet media, immediately after the Society’s press re- lease announcing the discovery. Nine gigantic ichthyosaurs are pre- served in a rock layer belonging to the Shaly Limestone Member of the Luning Formation at the Ichthyosaur State Park in Courtesy of Mark McMenamin Nevada. Geological analysis of this fossil Shonisaurus ichthyosaur vertebral disks at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Ne- site had shown it to be a deep water de- vada, arranged in curious linear patterns with almost geometric regularity. The ar- posit (Holger 1992), thus invalidating ranged vertebrae in this Specimen-U resemble the pattern of sucker discs on a cepha- Camp’s (1980) original hypothesis that lopod tentacle, with each vertebra strongly resembling a coleoid sucker. the fossil bed represented an ichthyosaur mass-stranding event. Holger’s (1992) metric patterns, some of which resem- bone arrangement has indeed “never study left unexplained, however, how it ble the sucker arrays on cephalopod been observed at other localities.” came to be that nine giant Shonisaurus tentacles. Seilacher remarked that Jurassic ich- ichthyosaurs sequentially accumulated A YouTube video from the Seattle thyosaur skeletons in Germany, which at virtually the same spot on the Triassic Aquarium, showing a Pacific Octopus may provide analogous examples, occur sea floor. attacking and killing a shark, lent wide- in stagnant basin strata devoid of sea This paleontological conundrum was spread credence to the hypothesis. To floor animals. Such sites received most of crying out for an unconventional new date, nearly 250 news and analysis arti- their sediment via muddy turbidity cur- approach to attempt to solve the prob- cles on the subject have appeared on- rents. (A turbidity current is a dilute un- lem. McMenamin and McMenamin line. derwater mudslide that forms a deposit (2011) hypothesized that the nine gigan- The Triassic Kraken hypothesis is in fact called a turbidite.) Ammonite fossils at tic ichthyosaur fossils were captured an extension of the great Seilacherian re- these sites are, on occasion, current- and transported by a gigantic cephalo- search program (named for the renowned aligned in an otherwise quiet water set- pod (“a Triassic kraken”), that killed the German paleontologist Adolf “Dolf” Sei- ting in a body of stagnant water. marine reptiles and then dragged their lacher) that sees trace fossils as fossilized Seilacher wonders, first, are there fos- carcasses back to its lair. The giant ceph- behavior. Once alerted to the new hy- sils of seafloor animals associated with alopod then proceeded to arrange the pothesis, Seilacher seemed intrigued by the Nevadan ichthyosaur bones? Second, bones of its victims into almost geo- the Triassic kraken and noted that the even an entirely soft-bodied cephalopod GEOLOGY 21st Century Science & Technology Winter 2011-2012 55 ROSE DIAGRAM SHOWING POSSIBLE CURRENTS AND RESULTING VERTEBRAL ARRAYS ting. Essentially the same depositional currents and the perimeter of the diagram setting is inferred for Shonisaurus speci- representing the weakest currents that mens of Hound Island, southeastern could move a vertebral centra. Alaska (called the deep-water Facies 2 by Case B has a dangling vertebral centra The kraken, a colossal octopus, in an Adams [2009]). Sediment analysis at the on its bottom end, hence it is safe from 1801 Century drawing by Pierre Dénys Nevada park indicates that the site was displacement only from a relatively nar- de Montfort, based on descriptions by deep, and that local marine depth had row wedge of current directions that French sailors. been increasing right up to the time that come from north of the array and would the bones were buried (Silberling 1959). flow around the array like currents mov- would still need a horny jaw, and assum- We can now confidently rule out a ing along the streamlined body of a fish. ing that it was not destroyed by bacteria, shallow water environment for the Berlin In this case the dangling vertebra is rough- might it still be possible to find a fossil of Ichthyosaur fossil site. Turbidite flows can ly streamlined like the tail of the fish. its beak? Third, why did the bones near undoubtedly align ammonite remains, as Case C is the array actually seen at Ber- the critical Specimen-U bi-serial verte- seen in Germany and elsewhere, but lin Ichthyosaur as Specimen-U. With dan- bral array remain undisturbed, and could whether or not such deep water flows gling vertebrae at both ends, any compe- the arrangement possibly be due to com- could arrange large, dense ichthyosaur tent current (be it from turbidity current paction? bones into bi-serial accumulations seems influx, shelf-edge contour currents, etc.), Possible Comparisons highly unlikely. from any direction, is going to displace The strata of the Shonisaurus-bearing Furthermore, the bi-serial vertebral ar- one or more of the bones; hence the en- Shaly Limestone Member of the Luning ray in Specimen-U is in a hydrodynami- tire rose diagram is filled in. Formation in Nevada might very well be cally unstable arrangement, regardless of Hence, it is virtually impossible that compared to the famous Jurrasic fossil inferred current direction. currents arranged the bi-serial array seen beds near Holzmaden, Germany, but A simple geometrical proof demon- in Specimen-U. This demonstration con- they might also be compared to the mud- strates the hydrodynamic instability of siders currents that are linear in terms of dy strata appearing as parallel-bedded the bi-serial array at Berlin Ichthyosaur their trajectory. Non-linear currents, such lime mudstones of Lefkara, southern Cy- State Park with regard to currents fast as swirling currents or gyres, would be prus. Stow (2006) interprets the Cypriot enough to displace ichthyosaur verte- even less likely to form the bi-serial array strata as alternating between distal turbi- brae. Case A is the most hydrodynami- seen in case C (Specimen-U). dites and open-water sedimentation (pe- cally stable. For the sake of discussion, Probability of Displacement lagites) in a deep-water slope to basinal we will consider north to be at the top of This demonstration can also be given setting. the image. Only currents from the north- in terms of probabilities. The probability Referring to the Cypriot strata, Stow east and the southwest, of sufficient force of displacement (PD), or tendency to dis- (2006, p. 179) notes that “the distinction to displace ichthyosaur vertebral centra placement, by currents in a random set of between turbidite and pelagite is often (a relatively dense bone type, shaped like directions, in Case A, is approximately very difficult to make . as is the case a hockey puck), have much chance of PD = 60/360 = 1/6 = 0.167 = 17 percent. here.” displacing the bones, and only the ones The probability of displacement in Case Similar considerations would apply to on the ends of the array are in much dan- B is PD = 320/360 = 8/9 = 0.889 = 89 the Shaly Limestone Member of the Lun- ger of thus being displaced. percent. The probability in Case C, the ing Formation. In any case, the sedimen- The rose diagram shows a narrow band actual case, is PD = 1.0 = 100 percent. tology of the Shaly Limestone Member is of competent currents, with the center of Once again, the probability that cur- in close accord with a deeper-water set- the diagram representing the strongest rents assembled the Nevada array is vir- 56 Winter 2011-2012 21st Century Science & Technology GEOLOGY Specimen-U array. Each individual disc in the array is em- bedded into the matrix, and there are no associated external casts of nearby discs, therefore no discs were removed from the array subsequent to fossilization. Seafloor Animal Fossils The question of in situ seafloor animal fossils in association with the Nevadan bones is an important one. Sea floor ani- mal fossils are rare at the site, although some brachiopods and/or halobiid bi- valves have been reported from this hori- zon in the Luning Formation. No trace fossil burrows are known from the Fossil House Quarry, but in the absence of san- dy turbidite layers to cast the underlying traces, these would not be expected to fossilize. The depositional setting may have been one that experienced reduced oxy- gen levels, as some organic matter is vis- www.ucmp.berkeley.edu ible in the rock thin sections. The envi- An exhibit at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park where visitors can view an exposed ronment, however, was evidently not bone bed surface. greatly anoxic, because the mudstones and micrites are light in color. Modern tually zero. Even in the unlikely event of axis), and what we see instead is that they vampire squids (Vampyroteuthis) are able two spiral current bores, of the type are displaced to the left side. to thrive at dissolved oxygen levels as known to be responsible for forming Thus, there is virtually no possibility low as 3 percent. elongate grooves, called flute casts, on that currents formed Case C. The trian- Giant Cretaceous squids (such as Tus- the sea floor, that happened to converge gular neck vertebra on one end of the oteuthis), reaching lengths of up to 11 along a center line to push material to the Specimen-U array is in a particularly pre- meters, are assigned to the vampire boundary between the spiraling currents carious position, with only one point of squids because of similarities in the (analogous to the converging circulation contact with an adjacent centra and two shape of their pen (gladius) to that of cells in the Sargasso Sea), Case C would corners of the triangle exposed to torque Vampyroteuthis.
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