Models and simulations of time-averaging in terrestrial vertebrate accumulations

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Abstract
Plants and shelly marine invertebrates often have diverse and densely packed communities that generate dense accumulations of organic remains. In contrast, populations in vertebrate communities are relatively dispersed in life, and normal annual mortality results in a relatively low density of remains scattered over the land surface. This attritional “bone rain” differs from unusual circumstances such as mass mortality and predator bone-collecting, which can generate high density accumulations of vertebrate remains in a short period of time.