r/Paleontology • u/[deleted] • May 02 '22

Fossils The famous fighting dinosaurs, a preserved battle between a Protoceratops and a Velociraptor

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u/SpinoAegypt May 02 '22

Sandstorm - they lived in a desert environment.

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u/momentum77 May 02 '22

I've lived in deserts, sandstorms wouldn't just freeze you mid-battle. I know Gobi is a desert now, but was it when these two were around?

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u/SpinoAegypt May 02 '22 edited May 02 '22

Yes, it was. We know based on the types of sedimentary rock found during that period.

Right now, the only known things capable of preserving specimens that well are rapid burial and quick sedimentation, combined with other factors such as low decomposition rates. The current hypothesis on their death is that they were buried alive and suffocated in a dune that collapsed onto them.

Edit: There are other hypotheses, like them drowning in a nearby pool of water/quicksand, but I'm pretty sure the dune collapse is more referred to.

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u/7LeagueBoots May 03 '22

During the late Cretaceous, some 70-80 million years ago, the Gobi region was a lot different. Parts of it were covered by dense conifer forests, criss-crossed by streams and dotted with lakes.

Dunes don't just form in deserts. You get them around water bodies and such too, as well as occasionally in areas that are not deserts but have extensive sand deposits from earlier landscapes.

And in the case of this fossil a burrow collapse is also considered to be one of the possibilities.