approximately 227 and 208.5 million years ago. Taphonomy The taphonomy (burial and fossilisation process) of the three main Plateosaurus sites—Trossingen, Halberstadt and Frick—is unusual in several ways. All three sites are nearly monospecific assemblages, meaning that they contain practically only one species, which requires very special circumstances. However, shed teeth of theropods have been found at all three sites, as well as remains of the early turtle Proganochelys. Additionally, a partial "prosauropod" skeleton was found in Halberstadt that does not belong to Plateosaurus, but is preserved in a similar position. All sites yielded almost complete and partial skeletons of Plateosaurus, as well as isolated bones. The partial skeletons tend to include the hind limbs and hips, while parts of the anterior body and neck are rarely found in isolation. The animals were all adults or subadults (nearly adult individuals); no juveniles or hatchlings are known. Complete skeletons and large skeleton parts that include the hind limbs all rest dorsal (top) side up, as do the turtles. Also, they are mostly well-articulated, and the hind limbs are three-dimensionally preserved in a zigzag posture, with the feet often much deeper in the sediment than the hips. Earlier interpretations In the first published discussion of the Trossingen Plateosaurus finds, Fraas suggested that only miring in mud allowed the preservation of the single complete skeleton then known. Similarly, Jaekel interpreted the Halberstadt finds as animals that waded too deep into swamps, became mired and drowned. He interpreted partial remains as having been transported into the deposit by water, and strongly refuted a catastrophic accumulation. In contrast, von Huene interpreted the sediment as aeolian deposits, with the weakest animals, mostly subadults, succumbing to the harsh conditions in the desert and sinking into the mud of ephemeral water holes. He argued that the completeness of many finds indicated that transport did not happen, and saw partial individuals and isolated bones as results of weathering and trampling. Seemann developed a different scenario, in which Plateosaurus herds congregated on large water holes, and some herd members got pushed in. Light animals managed to get free, while heavy individuals got stuck and died. A different school of thought developed almost half a century later, with palaeontologist David Weishampel suggesting that the skeletons from the lower layers stemmed from a herd that died catastrophically in a mudflow, while those in the upper layers accumulated over time. Weishampel explained the curious