With viruses and such being on the mind lately, has there ever been any evidence of a plague or something that affected prehistoric animals? If so, how do we know?

As far as I know something like that hasn’t been preserved in the fossil record nor could I think of a way this might preserve in a way it is recognizable as a pandemic

That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, the Earth is old after all, it’s just that animals that died under such conditions likely weren’t in areas where they could have fossilized as their bodies would simply have decomposed on the ground

In addition to that it is more likely to spread disease between humans as humans have easier means of transportation, being able to spread viruses further and they live in huge numbers close together

Among our pre-civilization ancestors this may not have occurred as the outbreak of a virus would only wipe one clan out at a time