SCIENCE SLAM SONIC EXPLORERS 01 - So Bizarrely Twisted

So Bizarrely Twisted
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Achim G. Reisdorf/ Nicole Blackman/ Submerged
Science Slam Sound Series 001 of Science Slam Sonic Explorers ⓒ Ohm Resistance (2013), on_lap_records (2013)

This track is an audio realization of a Science Slam text by Achim G. Reisdorf (University of Basel, Switzerland)
What is a Science Slam? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_...

Achim G. Reisdorf (research*, text**, ***, sounds, executive producer)
Michael Wuttke (research*)
Nicole Blackman (voice)
Kurt Gluck (music and production)
Tony Maimone (voiceover engineer)
Khomatech (original title screen)

Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?

Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Just consider that icon of paleontology, the fossil of the ancestral bird Archaeopteryx.
A special discipline, taphonomy, seeks to answer such questions of fate.
This interdisciplinary branch of science has uncovered many odd and dramatic stories of fossilizations, especially those involving the reconstruction of the events surrounding death.

In this sense, I am a paleo-forensic investigator.
During one of my research projects, I've come to be able to help disprove a global "fashion trend" in paleontology: the hypothesis of "petrified death throes".
Many of the skeletons used as evidence for this hypothesis have the neck bent far backwards.
Such fossils are found in deposits that are proven to have formed underwater.

Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?

My colleague Michael Wuttke and I have put this widely accepted hypothesis to the test by using, among other methods, a type of "kitchen science".
We placed chicken necks obtained from the local organic butcher in an aquarium
(that's right, chickens are the legitimate successors of dinosaurs!).
As if by magic, the outstretched necks quickly bent backwards 180 degrees.

The cause lies in the biomechanics of a preloaded ligament structure, which in vertebrates extends along the vertebral column from the tail to the neck.
When the usual effect of gravity on the lifeless, outstretched necks is negated by this underwater experiment, tensile forces of the ligament structure are able to bend the necks.

Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?
Why are so many dinosaur skeletons so bizarrely twisted?

This observation indicates that such dinosaurs probably died much more peacefully that has been often and so grisly assumed.
Dinosaur icon, R.I.P.
And a happy ending.
And a happy ending.

Next weird case:
Could dinosaur cadavers explode?

Remarks

Dedicated to Reiner Hertl aka Mr. 1900

Acknowledgments
Tony Maimone (voiceover engineer) www.studiogbrooklyn.com
Karol Lasia (title screen artist) www.khomatech.com
Special thanks to DeNae Flentje, Reiner Hertl, Joseph Hogan, Simon Jäggi, Christian Klug, Ronny Lehmann, Ursula Menkveld-Gfeller, Julia Offe, Brigitte Springmann, Sinje Weber, Michael Wuttke, GEO, Science Slam Basel, ScienceSlam.de

Sources
*) Reisdorf, A.G. & Wuttke, M. (2012): Re-evaluating Moodie's Opisthotonic-Posture Hypothesis in fossil vertebrates. Part I: Reptiles - The taphonomy of the bipedal dinosaurs Compsognathus longipes and Juravenator starki from the Solnhofen Archipelago (Jurassic, Germany). -- Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 92(1): 119-168. DOI: 10.1007/s12549-011-0068-y.
**) Reisdorf, A.G. & Wuttke, M. (2012/2013): Dino-Leichen, wie habt ihr euch verändert! (Science Slam presentation)
***) Reisdorf, A.G. (2013): CSI Jurassic Park. -- GEO, 10, Oktober: 175.

footage 1: © Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen

footage 2: TheExplodingWhale.com

photo of the Berlin Archaeopteryx specimen: © Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin)