Absence of animal mummies at Planet 4

[Immortan Jonesy]

When the Covenant crew is walking through the forests at Planet 4, there is no animal corpse or skeleton anywhere. We have to wait until the characters arrive at the Engineers' temple to see taxidermy style vestigies of the local fauna, which is odd if you ask me. Now, if the black accelerant killed all the creatures...then...why there weren't black goo mummies at the landscape after all, we have the Pompeii-style Engineers

[SM]

They could run faster than the Engineers I guess.

[Immortan Jonesy]

medium / small-sized animals maybe, but big ones?

[SM]

Sure why not.  I'm sure there's dead animals out there - they're just some way from the city.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Well, while Covenant is a monster movie which tackles some philosophical-AI themes, there are some elements of the Lost Wolrd narrative as well. So, I was expecting some nice eye candy along the lines of *Kong: Skull Island*.

[SM]

It'd end up being a distraction.

[David Weyland]

Budget cuts
There was a plan in one of the script drafts to have
a pile of dead Engineers wearing their helmets surrounding the crashed juggernaut. That would have been devilishly messed up

[whiterabbit]

The central arena was probably stabilized some how. The crew dosen't find any dead bodies until they enter the pearly gates. At which point the bodies are stacked wall to wall and inch to bloody black tar inch. Shit, there may have even been a fight put up by the engineers and it was only when David breached their defenses were the frozen corpses once again exposed to the elements. Everything outside of the cities walls was left to rapid environmental decay. Which is why you don't see any remains. The goo likely completely altered the creatures or the ashes were washed away by time.

Just a guess.

[Baron Von Marlon]

Animals might leave the area when a ship arrives. The noise could scare them deeper into the forests.
The ones close to the city probably ended up in David's lab.

[Immortan Jonesy]

The central arena was probably stabilized some how. The crew dosen't find any dead bodies until they enter the pearly gates. At which point the bodies are stacked wall to wall and inch to bloody black tar inch. Shit, there may have even been a fight put up by the engineers and it was only when David breached their defenses were the frozen corpses once again exposed to the elements. Everything outside of the cities walls was left to rapid environmental decay. Which is why you don't see any remains. The goo likely completely altered the creatures or the ashes were washed away by time.

Just a guess.

Well, according to archaeologists natural mummification is a possibility, but under certain environmental conditions: "It has to be really dry, or really wet, or really frozen, or really high elevation.". The Engineers city seems to be near the mountains and the weather is pretty wet, so who know. Also, maybe it has something to do with the planetary quarantine mentioned in the novelization of the film.

Another possibility is intentional mummification by exposure to chemicals, and maybe the black goo can preserve the corpses up to a certain point, as a kind of embalming side effect.

Animals might leave the area when a ship arrives. The noise could scare them deeper into the forests.
The ones close to the city probably ended up in David's lab.

It is difficult to believe that a single Juggernaut has the power to eliminate all the fauna of the whole planet, so I agree.

[The Old One]

Difficult to believe, but I believe true.

[Immortan Jonesy]

My nerdy side makes me question whether what I'm watching is logical or not. But yeah, from the filmmaker's point of view, David killed the entire population of the planet.

[whiterabbit]

Complete annihilation.

[SM]

The central arena was probably stabilized some how. The crew dosen't find any dead bodies until they enter the pearly gates. At which point the bodies are stacked wall to wall and inch to bloody black tar inch. Shit, there may have even been a fight put up by the engineers and it was only when David breached their defenses were the frozen corpses once again exposed to the elements. Everything outside of the cities walls was left to rapid environmental decay. Which is why you don't see any remains. The goo likely completely altered the creatures or the ashes were washed away by time.

Just a guess.

The multitude of Engineers couldn't get through the gates.

It is difficult to believe that a single Juggernaut has the power to eliminate all the fauna of the whole planet, so I agree.

The goo might not kill them directly, but what it spawned could.  And Planet 4 isn't terribly big.

[Baron Von Marlon]

If other animals fled the scene before the bombing, they died in places we didn't get to see.
So it's likely there are remains all over the planet, they're just out of sight.