17.3" Green River Fossil Fish Mural with Mioplosus and Knightia

Green River Fossil Fish Mural with Mioplosus and Knightia #280250

This is a gorgeous fossil fish "mural" from the Green River Formation of Wyoming. The entire mural measures 17.3 x 16.7" and features a 9.8" Mioplosus labracoides fish and four smaller Knightia eocaena fish. These fossils were collected from Warfield Quarry near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The Mioplosus fossil has been inlaid into the rock.

The entire piece has been backed with wood for stability and upon request we can add wall hanging hardware at no additional cost. Otherwise, it will be accompanied by a metal display stand. The specimen weighs just over 13 1/2 lbs.

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.

$995

SPECIES

Mioplosus labracoides & Knightia eocaena

AGE

Eocene (~48 million years)