Jurassic CSI: Fossils indicate central nervous system damage
Many animal fossils appear in a head-thrown-back position called the “dead-bird” pose, which paleontologists traditionally attribute to rigor mortis, desiccation of the carcass, or the shifting of bones by water currents. Now, scientists report that the posture probably came about because dinosaurs or other animals died of central nervous system damage. Fossils of nearly all birdlike Archaeopteryx, as well as some Tyrannosaurus rex and other ancient creatures, exhibit the curious pose.
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Study coauthor Cynthia Marshall Faux, a paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., who is also a veterinarian, has seen the same pose in many modern animals with central nervous system damage. She says that the posture, called opisthotonus, is common in animals suffering from brain injury or from oxygen deprivation, known as hypoxia. Bacterial infections such as meningitis and toxins from certain algal blooms (SN: 5/4/02, p. 275) can also send animals into opisthotonus.