An amazing interpretation of the evidence. Was this imposed by peer review? At https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fossil-bird-death.html … we have an interesting story, to say the least. Not least the machinations that must have been going on behind the scenes. Choked to death on rocks. A fossil bird has been discovered with over 800 tiny rocks in its throat. The word rock here is a bit incongruous as we are talking about a bird the size of a modern sparrow. A tiny bird. Think instead of grit – or even clay with a bit of grit. Rocks, not so much.
The mass of stones, now switching from rocks for some reason, we are told, was lodged in its esophagus. Right up against its neck bones. Very weird, they say. Yes, what an earth could the bird have been doing getting a mouthful of grit and clay. Thinking logically, we are then informed that some animals swallow stones intentionally – or by accident. Worth pursuing this angle, it should be said. You can’t jump to conclusions. Chickens, for example. swallow small stones, or grit, that are brought into their gizzard. They help the chicken to grind up its food, an evolutionary tool that seems useful for a bird that forages on the ground. After all, chickens must swallow grit all the time as gizzards can be emptied unintentionally. In this instance we are talking about a whole heap of stones, or grit – or might it have been even smaller. Sand. In any case, there were too many pieces to think it had anything to do with the gizzard, they conclude. Researchers seem to have been left expressing they had no idea why the bird swallowed so many stones. They then say they were not all stones but some were apparently made of clay. Little balls of clay. Of course, they cannot make a link with a catastrophic event as that is verboten. Even though it looks very much like the unfortunate bird was caught up in a great slodge of sediment and transported to its resting point. We may note the fossil strata is dated to the Cretaceous.
Staying on a similar theme, at https://phys.org/news/2025-12-free-climbers-remnants-ancient-sea.html … in 2019 a group of climbers on the slopes of Monte Conero in Italy came across a slab of rock covered in imprints that looked like a herd of running animals. The information was passed on to geologists who, later, set out to explore the site for rock samples. The rocks contained more than a thousand fossilised paddle shaped footprints on a 200m slab of limestone. The footprints were those of sea turtles, it was concluded. They seemed to be running towards the deep sea, possibly as a result of an earthquake. Or perhaps, as a result of a tsunami first drawing back the sea prior to rebounding back with a vengeance. Sratigraphic logging, the old fashioned geological methodology, was used – together with microscopy and microfossil analysis of the sediments. Once again the layer was dated to the Cretaceous.