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Searching that page for "virus" yields zero hits. Any reason why that would not be a pausible cause?

If they died from a virus, why wouldn't they have fossilized like the earlier or later perished cats? It is then more likely that they haven't died there (e.g., migrated away) or died under circumstances that they died under conditions that they couldn't have fossilized (e.g., volcanic eruption).

I think they’re talking about the cause of the gap e.g. a virus would have emerged and killed all the nimravids.

Just as a point of order, volcanic eruptions are responsible for a great deal of the fossils we actually have.

Pompeii is too new for actual fossilization to have occurred, naturally, but it clearly shows why eruption is so good for the fossil record: that, flash floods, and tar pits, are the three best ways to envelop a corpse before it's devoured.

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