2.1" Fossil Xiphactinus (Cretaceous Fish) Vertebra - Kansas

This is a 2.1" large, fossil Xiphactinus audax vertebra from the Niobrara Formation of Gove County, Kansas. This vertebra was slightly compressed during fossilization but still makes a phenomenal specimen.

It comes with an acrylic display stand.



Xiphactinus was a huge predatory fish that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It would have been a voracious predator, growing 15-20 feet long. When alive, the fish would have resembled a gargantuan fanged tarpon. It appeared in the BBC's Sea Monsters and National Geographic's Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, and was labelled a "Prehistoric Terror" in the Animal Planet show River Monsters.

The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil-rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. It outcrops in parts of northwest Kansas--its most famous localities for fossils--and in southeastern Nebraska. Large, well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and turtles.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Xiphactinus audax
LOCATION
Gove County, Kansas
FORMATION
Niobrara Formation
SIZE
2.1" wide
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#221405
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