Fossil Fish Mass Mortality Plate - 24x10"

Fossil Fish Mass Mortality Plate - x #10874

This is a very displayable mass mortality plate of 50 million year old fish fossils from the Green River Formation of Wyoming. There are 24 complete or near complete fish on this 24x10" natural slab of limestone. All except one of them are of the species Knightia eocaena. The fish are almost all in the 3 to 4 inch size range with the largest one being 3.8" long. The plate is very solid and up to an inch thick.

About Knightia

Knightia is an extinct genus of small, schooling, ray-finned fish related to modern herrings and sardines. Abundant in the warm freshwater lakes of the Eocene Green River Formation, they fed on insects, plankton, and tiny fish, while serving as prey for nearly every larger predator in the ecosystem. The most common species, Knightia eocena, reached about 15 cm in length and is celebrated today as the state fossil of Wyoming.

These streamlined fish are recognized by their heavy scales, small conical teeth, and rows of dorsal and ventral scutes along the body. Their fossils are among the most iconic from the Green River Formation—an exceptional 48-million-year-old lake deposit in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah known for preserving a remarkably detailed snapshot of ancient life in a warm, lake-rich Eocene landscape.

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