The ichthyosaurs of Holzmaden, Germany, are among the most exquisite fossils ever discovered. Many of their skeletons have been left in stunning, articulated detail, and the very outlines of their ichthyosaurian bodies were preserved by the bacteria which decomposed their carcasses after the marine reptiles had settled to the bottom of the Jurassic sea. It was specimens like these, which clearly showed the outlines of dorsal fins and tail flukes supported by downward-kinked tails, that caused paleontologists to see ichthyosaurs are swift, reptilian tuna mimics and not the slow, paddle-bearing lizards envisioned by 19th-century naturalists.

But what happened between the time the Holzmaden ichthyosaurs died and when they sank to the ocean bottom? Did the predators fall through the water column