Hydroplate - Vertical Compression

The massive, violent hail storm buried mammoths and rhinoceroses alive, many standing up and compressed from all sides. Babies, such as Dima, were flattened. Exposed parts of adult bodies, unsupported by bone, were vertically flattened. Sometimes even strong bones were crushed by axial compression. Encasement in muddy ice maintained the alignment of Berezovka’s leg bone as it was crushed lengthwise, before or soon after death.

Ice slowly flows downhill as, for example, in glaciers. Such a downward flow, pushing Berezovka tail first as he tried to climb to higher ground, would explain his forward swept hind legs, humped back, displaced vertebrae, and spread front legs bent at the “ankles.”