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Comment by DamnYuppie | Hacker News Reader

If they were caught in a flash flood the odds of all of them ending up together seems very low just from my experiences with flash floods in the Sonoran desert. Flash floods are VERY violent and will take 2-4 ton vehicles and throw them about like a tiger playing with a mouse. Those remains don't look like they weight that much so I would think some other, less violent, event led to them all expiring near one another at the same time.

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20k years ago the flash floods were less evolved and hence were much slower than the modern newfangled flash floods you're talking about.

Flash flood is the modern species. They were splash floods back then, until dash floods emerged, leading to the modern variety as speed increased even more.

Are these all AI generated jokes?

Nah, just out-of-practice, work-from-home dad jokes (at least GP, which was mine)

As the flood dissipates downstream particles will fall out of suspension and/or wash ashore. They're all the same shape and density so the conditions in which they drop out is going to be about equal. If they were all swept up from the same starting point they could very well all end up washing up in the same place. It's made more likely if the river has something like a natural lake for the flood to dissipate into. The dead stuff is free to float about and get naturally sorted by the wind and mild currents.

There's further evidence for flash flood (or mudslide?) though: IIRC, they need to be buried very quickly and thoroughly for fossilization.

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