why does it appear that, for most genera of dinosaur, there is only one described species?
In: 5
Fossilization happens very rarely. It takes quite specific circumstances to happen. It’s just that dinosaurs roamed the earth for over 100 million years and there were plenty of opportunities for it to happen in that time.
On the other hand, not a lot of any given species gets fossilized, it’s just such a rare thing.
So a small number of fossils, and we definitely haven’t found them all either.
On top of that, often only part of the dinosaur will actually get fossilized. It wouldn’t be surprising if we found a random dinosaur foot because the rest of the animal got eaten and the foot got left behind. Or other random bits, or broken parts that got left behind.
The rare occasions where we find a whole dinosaur are because it got swallowed up in a mudslide, or fell into a peat-bog.
A dinosaur that keels over and dies of natural causes is probably not going to get fossilized.
Latest Answers