8.1" Unprepared Multiple Fossil Fish Plate - Wyoming

Unprepared Multiple Fossil Fish Plate - Wyoming #292116

This is an unprepared fish plate that likely contains multiple Knightia eocaena and/or Diplomystus dentatus, collected from the Green River Formation near Kemmerer, Wyoming. There appear to be three fossil fish on the plate, one nearly complete and two partial fish.

While the fish appear to be articulated, as with all unprepared fossils there are no guarantees. You don't know what will be under the surface.

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.