In this article, the unusual head positions seem to indicate that these creatures died from a kind of nerve damage. One of the possibilities is oxygen deprivation. Doesn’t this suggest that most of these creatures probably died from suffocation after a sudden mud slide or other deluge?

Ron McMurtry
Modesto, Calif.

Suffocation from a mud slide, deluge, or volcanic eruption is a strong possibility. But not all fossils in this pose are found in those geological settings. —C. Barry