Chariots Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb


Photo: Zhang Xiaoli/Xinhua

Archaeologists in Luoyang, China, dug up 5 chariots and 12 horse skeletons from a 2,500-year-old tomb. The photos over at National Geographic are fantastic, but can someone explain to me why the skeletons of the horses are flat? Link


Maybe that's a steam-roller and not a chariot?

I would guess that the weight of whatever they were buried under flattened them out. Same thing happened with the dinosaurs. Maybe Ryan can refer you to a scientific paper on the subject.
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@ted

Compaction-Related Deformation in Cambrian Olenelloid Trilobites and its Implications for Fossil Morphometry
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1306790

"Compaction-related deformation, defined as distortion of specimens by the weight of overlying sediment, is the deformation process that most commonly affects fossil form."
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I'll take Gravity for 300 Alex.

This is what happens to things that are buried under the ground for thousands of years.

What is lay flat?

That is correct.

Your Mother Trabek!
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If you didn't want horses that go flat after being buried under hundreds of tons of earth for more than two millennia, you should have bought American and not knock-off Chinese counterfeits.
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I know that when I spend a couple thousand years buried under tons of dirt, I feel pretty flat myself. Let some filly in heat prance by, and they'll perk right up.
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