Diplomystus Dentasus Fish Plaque

Description

Diplomystus Dentasus Fish Plaque measures 16.1 inches. Diplomystus Dentasus Fish Plaque is museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in USA. Eocene Green River Ulrich Quarry. Knightia humilis also visible. Our precise Diplomystus Dentasus Fish Plaque can be used as a teaching tool, museum exhibit, home decor, or office decor.

Diplomystus Dentasus is an extinct genus of freshwater clupeomorph fish distantly related to modern day extant herrings, alewives, and sardines. Diplomystis dentatus is well known from lower Eocene deposits from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. Specimens range from larval size to 65 cm and are commonly found in close association with the extinct herring Knightia sp. The Green River Formation is the remnant of a large lake whose mud would eventually be transformed into soft calcite-bearing shale.

Diplomystus Dentasus sported an upturned mouth making this fish a surface feeder. During life, these predatory fish fed on smaller Knightia. Occasionally, Knightia fossils can be found lodged in the throats of large Diplomystus specimens. Fossils are common in certain regions of the formation but are very rare in others. Currently in the Green River Formation, there is only one described species of this genus. However, there have been three other species that have once been named throughout the years. Diplomystus dentatus was once placed in the herring family, Clupeidae, but was later added to the herring like family, Ellimmichthyidae.

50 million years ago, in the Eocene Diplomystus Dentasus thrived in Fossil Lake fed by Uinta and Rocky Mtn. 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 Diplomystus Dentasus, freshwater stingrays, dog-sized horses, menacing alligators, early flying bats, and one of the first primates.

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