Reply to “Ichthyosaur embryos outside the mother body: not due to carcass explosion but to carcass implosion” by van Loon (2013)

Abstract

In his recent discussion on the taphonomy of ichthyosaurs, van Loon (2013) supported—at least partially—the view of Reisdorf et al. (2012) and emphasized that explosion of vertebrate carcasses on the sea floor should not be considered as a taphonomically reasonable scenario. Carcass explosion is thus not a process that can be used to explain both the disarticulation of certain ichthyosaur skeletons and the displacement of their bones in the geological record. Van Loon (2013), however, did suggest that, as an alternative hypothesis, implosion could have led to the displacement of bones on the sea floor. Van Loon (2013) focussed his explanation of the implosion hypothesis on the example of a maternal ichthyosaur having embryonic ichthyosaurs around and within its body cavity (Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde Stuttgart, specimen number SMNS 50 007). Reisdorf et al. (2012) outlined that