Abstract
Taphonomic studies of marine fossil assemblages have achieved new levels of sophistication in the past several years, but field-based investigations of time-averaged skeletal accumulations continue to suffer from an unavoidable problem: to date, a time machine has yet to be invented that would permit the researcher to observe directly the formation of the assemblage under study. Even when working with Recent subfossil accumulations on the sea floor, where it is theoretically possible to view the activity of (possibly myriad) taphonomic processes, practical considerations prevent the extensive, day-to-day monitoring that would be required to “bear witness”, in a kinetic sense, to the formation of skeletal assemblages. At best, we are sometimes provided with opportunities for comparative glimpses of skeletal accumulations before and after events of potential taphonomic significance, such as hurricanes (e.g., Miller et al., 1992).
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