‘Jurassic Pompeii’ yields thousands of ‘squiggly wiggly’ fossils

Palaeontologist Tim Ewin is standing in a quarry, recalling the calamity that’s written in the rocks under his mud-caked boots.

“They tried to protect themselves, adopting the stress position of pulling their arms in,” he continues. “But it was all in vain; you can see where their arms got snagged open, right up to the crown. They were pushed into the sediment and buried alive.”

There’s a little smile creeping across Tim’s face, and he’s got reason to be happy.