Fish Priscacara sp.
Specifications
- Found:
- Green River, Wyoming, USA
- Genus:
- Priscacara
- Overall size:
- 25,5*19,8*2,4 cm (10.04*7.8*0.94")
- Age:
- 48-53 mln years
- Specimen weight:
- 1.6 kg (3.53 lbs)
- Period:
- Paleogene
Description
Would the perch serve as an interior decoration? Of course, if it is a fossil seabass 40 million years old!
During the Eocene, when great apes did not even exist, these fish already inhabited our planet's rivers and lakes. In most cases, their fragile skeletons decay and disappear over time. It takes special conditions for fish fossils to preserve in perfect condition.
Such conditions happened to occur in a lake region that paleontologists call Green River. In times of drought, shallow water bodies would disappear, leaving fish mired in a drying layer of mud. Then the water returned and brought a new layer of silt, and the skeletons of perch remained in the thick sediment, gradually turning into stone. Even the thinnest tail and fin bones were intact and managed to survive for over 40 million years.
