Like good homicide detectives, palaeontologists use the death scene to look for clues as to when and how their ancient subjects went from fauna to fossils.

One important Canadian Cretaceous death scene is the Carrot River locality (fossil site) in eastern Saskatchewan. An impressive "death assemblage" at this site contains the fossils of more than 35 species of ancient marine vertebrates, including the oldest fossils of birds found in North America.

Palaeontologists from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature have pieced together when these Cretaceous creatures died and how they became fossils.