Strange or boring? New study leaves news about the death of the most preserved dinosaurs of all time.
Let’s remember Yixian, a “Chinese Pompeii”. 120 million years ago there were forests, lakes and an incredible ecosystem that was home to a diversity of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.
A new challenges the popular theory that dinosaurs in this region fossilized after a dramatic volcanic eventsimilar to the eruption that buried Pompeii.
The Yixian Formation produced some of the most complete dinosaur fossils, many with feathers and soft tissue intact, giving strong support to the theory that modern birds descended from dinosaurs.
Until now, scientists believed that a series of intense volcanic eruptions preserved these fossils by quickly covering them in ash, similar to the “ash mummies” of Pompeii.
However, this new analysis suggests that these fossils may actually represent more…normal deaths.
The study authors argue that the Yixian fossils likely reflect regular environmental conditions over time rather than a single catastrophic event.
The analysis suggests that dinosaurs and other creatures may have died out in common events such as tocas collapses or have been buried due to intense rains; and not because of volcanoes.
The Yixian fossil collection is divided into two types main: intact 3D skeletons found on land and flattened fossils discovered in lake beds.
This last group, although less three-dimensional, preserved soft tissue, a rarity in the fossil record.
Some creatures seem to have died peacefully, with limbs bent in positions that suggest they were sleeping, contrasting with the human remains from Pompeii, which show signs of a painful death.
It was this observation that led scientists to reevaluate previous theories, highlights .
The research team analyzed grains of zircon of fossil samples and used a precise dating method called CA-ID-TIMS, revealing that the fossils date back 125.8 million years and accumulated over about 93,000 years.
During this period, changes in Earth’s orbit led to wetter conditionsleading to the accumulation of sediment which quickly buried the creatures and blocked oxygen — a key factor in preserving soft tissue.
For the 3D fossils found on land, the surrounding sediment was thicker, indicating less moisture, which preserved only the bones.
This pattern suggests that while lake fossils were buried in finer sediments that sealed them, terrestrial fossils may have died out due to incidents such as burrow collapses caused by loosening of the sediment or the trampling of larger animals.
