One of the most extraordinary fossil beds of Cretaceous creatures in the world formed about 125 million years ago, in what’s now northeastern China.
Researchers have thought that the diverse members of this ancient community were abruptly buried by catastrophic volcanic flows of hot ash and rock.
But that volcano doomsday scenario — sometimes referred to as China’s Cretaceous Pompeii — didn’t happen, researchers contend November 3 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Instead, the team says, the animals found in these rocks — including nonavian dinosaurs, birds, mammals, insects, frogs and turtles — were buried by a series of unfortunate, but not catastrophic, events.