Diplomystus dentatus Fish Plaque Replica

Description

Diplomystus dentatus fish plaque replica measures 16.1 inches. Diplomystus Diplomystus dentatus fish plaque replica is museum-quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA. Eocene Green River Ulrich Quarry.

Diplomystus dentatus 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 Dentatus 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 specimen 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 dentatus fossil fish 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 dentatus, freshwater stingrays, dog-sized horses, menacing alligators, early flying bats, and one of the first primates.

Scientific classification:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Actinopterygii
• Order: Clupeiformes
• Family: Ellimmichthyidae
• Genus: Diplomystus Cope, 1877
• Temporal range: Late Cenomanian to Middle Eocene
• Conservation status: Extinct

An Eocene predator like the diplomystus dentatus fish plaque replica helps illustrate the food chain dynamics that eventually result in specimens like the megalodon shark coprolite replica.