7.1" Cretaceous Fossil Crab (Avitellmessus) - Mississippi

This is a wonderfully prepared example of the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian Stage) aged fossil crab, Avitellmessus grapsoideus. These crabs are found within hard concretions (a mass of rock that forms around organic manner) that erode out of the Ripley Formation (Coon Creek Member) in Union County, Mississippi, which must be broken open to find the crab. The crab must then be prepared from the hard concretion using mechanical tools, a very time consuming process.

Excellent preparation on this specimen. There are several repaired cracks through the fossil where the nodule split during collection.

Fossils from this deposit are becoming increasingly harder to come across as they're no longer being collected at this site.