The Atlantic

An Incredible Fossil Contains a Whole School of 259 Fish

How did they all die at once?
Source: Mizumoto / Proceedings of the Royal Society B

In 2016, was visiting the dinosaur museum in his hometown of Katsuyama, Japan, when he came across an unexpected display—not of a dinosaur, but of a school of fish. It was embedded in limestone shale and exhibited in a corner with no particular fanfare. Yet the 50-million-year-old fossil was clearly extraordinary: 259 tiny fish bodies with eyes and spines and even fins. All but a few faced the

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