|
Yeah, and the larger and softer the animal the rarer it is to end up a fossil.
You have to die and then have your body almost immediately end up in a situation that will prevent decay or being eaten. Then have that situation be stable enough that you won't be eroded to dust before we modern humans can find it but not so hard to access that we can't actually find it.
Then on top of that it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the total world population of these hominids at any one time was in the thousands or tens of thousands and it's pretty amazing we found even one in recognizable condition.
Finding parts of 36 suggests we got really lucky with a well timed (for us, not so much them) hippopotamus stampede.
|