21.5" Plate with Two Diplomystus Fish Fossils - Wyoming

Plate with Two Diplomystus Fish Fossils - Wyoming #144220

This a very aesthetic plate of shale containing two detailed fossil fish of the species Diplomystus dentatus. It comes from the famous fish beds near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The plate measures 21.5" wide by 13" tall and the largest fish is 8.5" long. There is repaired crack in this rock that runs through the largest fish's tail. This required gap fill and restoration at the point of breakage.

The shale has been backed with wood and two ring hangers have been installed for hanging presentation.

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.