 a natural experiment in taphonomy. Palaios 4:487-492.
Summary. During 1983 a mass die-off of sea urchins occurred throughout the Caribbean, due to disease. Mortality rates exceeded 98% in Jamaica and Curacao, and probably elsewhere. Samples taken around the island of Bonaire showed no increase in echinoderm material associated with this mass mortality event, indicating that the reef environment was not favorable to the preservation of evidence for echinoid mass mortality. Mass preservation of echinoderms in the fossil record should be interpreted as the result of unusual taphonomic processes such as rapid burial by catastrophes.