I mean, imagine a force strong enough to fossilize feathers, ( hmmm...) and what the creature's feathers would be like from such a tremendous force
You later invite us to imagine fossilization as being as if some force pumelling the organism against semi-hard rock/mud and leaving an imprint. This is not how fossils are formed. Solnhofen is actually
quite interesting:
quote:
This included placid lagoons that had limited access to the open sea and where salinity rose high enough that the resulting brine could not support life. Since the lowest water was devoid of oxygen, many ordinary scavengers were absent. Any organism that fell, drifted, or was washed into the lagoons from the ocean or the land became buried in soft carbonate mud. Thus, many delicate creatures avoided consumption by scavengers or being torn apart by currents...
The fine-grained texture of the mud silt forming the limestone from the Solnhofen area (which is composed mainly of the towns of Solnhofen and Eichsttt)is ideal for making lithographic plates...
The remains settle, and more silt is deposited on top of them. The silt continues to build and eventually hardens embedding the remains within. The remains degrade over time leaving a detailed cast of the remains that were once contained.
Its a simplification, and it misses out the permineralization that can occur to this 'cast', more details can be found
here. Read around, you might find it interesting...though you might not. Take care,
Mod