Further, the bones were oriented preferentially showing both northeast and opposing southwest paleocurrent directions. Bone map of layer 3 at the Turnipseed Dinosaur Site showing orientation and distribution as recorded by the Red Mountain Museum staff in their 1986 back-hoe excavation of the outcrop. Note that bones are not articulated as in life position. Fossils at any given site originated from a single individual dinosaur and are not found directly associated with other vertebrate fossils. The host sedimentary layer is laterally continuous over several kilometers, but generally the fossils at a given site are situated in an area of a few square meters.
Fossils occur both near the base of and within the host sedimentary layer.
Bones near the base may be highly oriented according to paleocurrent direction. The host layer is slightly graded according to grain size, and the basal fossils are similarly graded. Fossils are associated with minor concentrations of quartz sand, apparently derived from nearshore, but no other detrital grains of similar size are found. The spatial and temporal distribution of cumulate fossils in the shelfal deposits appears to be random and unpredictable, but is likely more voluminous than we imagine. Open-marine cumulates occur in the Mooreville, Demopolis, and Prairie Bluff Chalks in the inner Coastal Plain of Alabama.