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Yes, I understand that fossilization is rare, but that makes it even more puzzling: you'd want to dig furiously if you did find remains in a confined area.
by rmk 5y ago
Yes, I understand that fossilization is rare, but that makes it even more puzzling: you'd want to dig furiously if you did find remains in a confined area.
- bena 5y agoCave systems can be quite large. It could have taken 80 years to get through enough of the cave. And then you have to consider it's a variation of the halting problem. Until you find something, you can't know if you're actually going to find something or nothing. So do you keep digging in this spot or do you move to another spot? So while they already found remains in this cave, the new remains probably weren't in the immediate area. 5 days, 5 years, 50 years, none of those timeframes would be surprising. It all tracks.
- RosanaAnaDana 5y agoThere is a definite policy among some paleontological research groups to intentionally not excavate a site fully, understanding that techniques and technologies will improve with time, and they understand that current methods may limit futures researchers ability to do their work.