The “Pompeii of Animals”

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

In northern China, millennia-old creatures’ remains—including impressions of body outlines and the textures of feathers, scales or fur imprinted into what was once mud, even fossilized soft tissue—speak of some past calamity that befell the ecosystem, wiping out troves of organisms in one cataclysmic blow.

The “Pompeii of Animals” Shows Dinosaurs, Mammals and Early Birds in Their Death Throes

smithsonianmag.com

A lethal volcanic explosion is identified as the culprit behind a mysterious mass death of creatures that took place around 125 million years ago