TAPHONOMY OF THE MOTHER'S DAY QUARRY: IMPLICATIONS FOR GREGARIOUS BEHAVIOR IN SAUROPOD DINOSAURS

by MYERS, TIMOTHY S

The Mother’s Day Quarry contains the remains of a number of immature sauropod dinosaurs. This site is one of only a few thought to provide skeletal evidence of gregarious behavior in sauropods, but none of these sites has been taphonomically constrained in order to verify the presence of a herd remnant; our only reliable data on sauropod herds currently comes from the ichnological record, which often provides conflicting information. The Mother’s Day site has the potential to clarify ambiguities in the trackway data. This study determines the suitability of the Mother’s Day Quarry as a basis for behavioral interpretations. Analysis of the site reveals that post-mortem biases are minimal, and the sauropods in the quarry likely represent the remnants of a mobile social group. The absence of adult individuals in the assemblage is probably the result of age segregation of some sauropod herd groups.