5.4" Cretaceous Crusher Fish (Coccodus) With Shrimp - Hjoula, Lebanon

Cretaceous Crusher Fish (Coccodus) With Shrimp - Hjoula, Lebanon #163543

This is an 5.4" long Cretaceous crusher fish (Coccodus insignis) from Hjoula, Lebanon. It has small molariform teeth in it's mouth which would have allowed it to easily crush the shells of small mollusks and crustaceans that it found while searching the mud. Some of these molariform teeth can easily be seen in this specimen.

It is associated with a fossil shrimp (Carpopenaeus callirostris) on an unbroken, 10 x 8.6" slab of limestone.

Comes with a display stand.

The discovery of amazingly preserved marine fossils near Hjoula, Lebanon dates back many centuries. In fact they were first mentioned in writing by Herodotus, over 450 years before the birth of Christ. The first scientific work on these localities began in the 1800's and these deposits have been meticulously quarried by several Lebanese families for over a century. We purchase our specimens directly from one of these families that have worked the quarries for generations.

These deposits represent a warm, shallow sea and have yielded over 70 types of fish as well as numerous other genre found no where else in the world. The preservation on many of these specimens is truly amazing including examples of soft bodied preservation.

A photo of one of the quarries at Hjoula, Lebanon