‘Prehistoric Pompeii’ reveals 515 million-year-old sea bugs’ anatomy in pristine 3D

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2024-07-10 15:00:12

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About half a billion years ago, a volcanic eruption near a shallow sea in what’s now Morocco preserved some of the most complete specimens ever found of buglike sea creatures called trilobites, revealing anatomical details that scientists had never seen before.

Within moments, a fast-moving torrent of hot ash and volcanic gases, called pyroclastic flow, engulfed the trilobites and then cooled and hardened to solid rock. The trilobites perished on the spot — much like the people who were similarly entombed in ash at Pompeii in AD 79, during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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