4.3" Diplomystus & Knightia Fossil Fish - Wyoming

Diplomystus & Knightia Fossil Fish - Wyoming #79857

This is a nice, 4.3" long Diplomystus dentatu from the Eocene aged Green River Formation of Wyoming. The Diplomystus is nicely detailed and prepared with bone structure, fins, and overlapping scale structure visible. The Knightia is tiny but still shows bone and scale detail. They were collected from Warfield's Quarry and come with an acrylic display stand.

50 million years ago, in the Eocene, these fish thrived in Fossil Lake, which was fed by 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 in 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.