Spare thoughts about sauropod graves

[brandem]

Within a humid environment bones can decay rather quickly, however in and arid climate they can last for hundreds and at times over a thousand years.

This brings me to think about the sauropods, dying and leaving their massive skeletons behind. The jumble of ribs, vertebrae, and limbs could play the home of smaller animals for generations.

A thought spared to how these massive animals may have shaped their environments, even for years after they died.

[Libraraptor]

Like huge whales sinking to the ground of the sea, creating a whole new ecosystem?  Giving nutrients and shelter? Sounds plausible.

[brandem]

Essentially that's exactly it, where a whale fall is a fixture of the ocean floor for 50-100 years.

I think of it like being told a tree or grove is 500 years old and how imposing that can be on a scale of time compared to our lifespans.  Sauropods in the dry climates could essentially become forests of bones. Recognizable features of the landscape as more and more accumulate.

[Georassic]

How many sci-fi/fantasy movies have shown scenes with a giant skeleton or boneyard in a desert environment? 

[brandem]

How many sci-fi/fantasy movies have shown scenes with a giant skeleton or boneyard in a desert environment?

Yes, I imagine the earliest of those being inspired by the wadi el hitan, but essentially a real world version of those scenes.

[Papi-Anon]

How many sci-fi/fantasy movies have shown scenes with a giant skeleton or boneyard in a desert environment?

First thing that came to my mind was the wasteland on Skull Island where the massive skeletons of Kong's kin are strewn about. (from 'Kong: Skull Island', to clarify)

[Halichoeres]

They probably wouldn't accumulate in most environments--bones are full of calcium and phosphate, and every living things is hungry for phosphate in particular. The bottom of the sea is low in oxygen, so even though there is a lot of whale to decompose, it takes a long time to do so (animals like hagfish and boneworms require oxygen for cellular respiration, after all). On land, decomposers can work much more quickly. But yes, in arid environments a sauropod skeleton could probably persist for a pretty long time, because decomposers need water too.