15" Fossil Fish (Phareodus) - Top Quality Specimen

This is an absolutely killer specimen of one of the more uncommon fish from the Green River Formation. It's a large 15" long Phareodus collected from the Dempsy Ridge Quarry near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The preservation is spectacular and there is no restoration at all on this fish unlike most larger fish. Check out some of the detail shots in the listing including the mouthful of teeth. This is probably the nicest Phareodus that we've had for sale.

The rock has been backed with plywood to add stability and also making it easy to mount on a wall.

50 million years ago, in the Eocene, these fish thrived in Fossil Lake, which was fed by the Uinta and Rocky Mountain highlands. The anoxic conditions at the bottom of Fossil Lake slowed bacterial decomposition, prevented scavengers from disturbing corpses and, most interestingly, suffocated creatures that ventured into the oxygen-starved aquatic layer. The result is a miraculous exhibition of Eocene biota: a subtropical aquatic community within sycamore forests, teeming with creatures such as freshwater stingrays, dog-sized horses, menacing alligators, early flying bats, and one of the first primates.

A view of one of the commercial quarries where fossils from the Green River Formation are collected.
A view of one of the commercial quarries where fossils from the Green River Formation are collected.


SOLD
DETAILS
SPECIES
Phareodus
LOCATION
Dempsey Ridge Quarry, Kemmerer, WY
FORMATION
Green River Formation, 18 Inch Layer
SIZE
15" long on 20.5 x 13.5" rock
CATEGORY
ITEM
#92866
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