0.5 Detailed Fossil March Fly Insect Green River FM Uintah County UT Eocene Age
Location: Uintah County, Utah
Weight: 0.9 Ounces
Dimensions: 1.9 Inches Long, 1.8 Inches Wide, 0.3 Inches Thick (Plate)
Insect Dimensions: 0.5 Inches Long, 0.4 Inches Wide
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
50 million years old, Eocene age
March Fly Insect
Around 50 million years ago, during the Eocene Epoch, Fossil Lake occupied what is now southwestern Wyoming. At its largest, the lake spanned approximately 930 square miles, of which about 500 square miles of sediment remain today. The central 230 square miles of the ancient lake bed preserve exceptionally fossil-rich layers and a variety of geological features, including deltas, beaches, springs, and both deep-water and nearshore deposits.
The lake’s unusual chemistry prevented decay and scavenging, allowing organisms to settle undisturbed on the lake floor. Over time, millimeter-thick alternating layers of limestone accumulated, forming laminated rocks that contain the highest concentration of fossil fish in the world.
Since their discovery in the 1870s, thousands of exquisitely preserved fossils have been recovered, creating the most detailed Paleogene record of a freshwater lake ecosystem. Alongside the fish, the lake preserved an entire aquatic community, including cyanobacteria, plants, insects, crustaceans (shrimp, crawfish, and ostracods), amphibians (frogs and primitive salamanders), alligators, turtles, birds, and mammals such as the earliest known pantolestid, an otter-like creature.
Fossils from the surrounding subtropical landscape reveal a diverse terrestrial ecosystem as well, with remains of horses, snakes, lizards, bats, primitive carnivores (miacids), arboreal insectivores (apatemyids), numerous insects, and more than 325 species of leaves, seeds, and flowers.
