Laboratory water flumes are artificial troughs of moving water widely used in hydraulic studies of fluvial systems to investigate real-world problems at smaller, more manageable scales. Water flumes have also been used to understand bone transportation sorting and bone orientation found in the fossil record using actual bones. To date, these studies have not involved scaled bones. A 1/12 scale model of a 21.8-m long skeleton of Apatosaurus, a long-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, was used to explore three problems at Dinosaur National Monument (USA) that cannot be explained by tradition bone flume studies: (1) why there is an abrupt bend in articulated vertebrae, (2) why articulated dorsals are inverted relative to the pelvis, and (3) how bone jams form. The flume experiments established that (1) bed friction with the wing-like transverse processes of vertebrae resists the force of the water flow, whereas those vertebrae lacking the processes are free to pivot in the flow; (2) elevation of the dorsal vertebrae by the transverse processes subjects the vertebrae to the energy of the flow stream, which causes the vertebrae to flip. Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) software shows this flip was due to differential pressure on the upstream and downstream sides. (3) The formation and growth of bone clusters or jams (analogous to log jams in rivers) occur as transported bones pile against an initial obstruction and jammed bones themselves become obstacles. These preliminary studies show that scale models can provide valuable insights into certain taphonomic problems that cannot be obtained by traditional bone flume studies.

中文翻译：

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在比例水槽实验中使用缩放的恐龙骨骼。

实验室水槽是移动水的人工水槽，广泛用于河流系统的水力研究，以较小的，更易于管理的规模研究实际问题。水槽也已被用来了解使用实际骨骼在化石记录中发现的骨骼运输分类和骨骼方向。迄今为止，这些研究还没有涉及鳞片骨骼。雷龙21.8米长骨架的1/12比例模型是侏罗纪晚期的长颈蜥脚类恐龙的恐龙，被用于探索美国国家恐龙纪念碑上的三个问题，这些问题无法用传统的骨槽研究来解释：（1）为什么铰接椎骨突然弯曲，（2 ）为什么说铰接的背侧相对于骨盆是倒置的；以及（3）怎么形成卡纸。水槽实验证明：（1）与翼状横向脊椎过程的床层摩擦力可抵抗水流的力，而缺乏这种过程的椎骨可在水流中自由枢转；（2）通过横向过程抬高背椎骨使椎骨受到气流的能量，这会导致椎骨翻转。计算流体动力学（CFD）软件显示此翻转是由于上游和下游侧的压差引起的。（3）骨簇或堵塞物的形成和生长（类似于河流中的原木堵塞）是由于运输的骨头堆积成最初的障碍物而发生的，被堵塞的骨头本身成为障碍。这些初步研究表明，比例模型可以为某些传统的骨槽研究无法获得的某些理论问题提供有价值的见解。