0.6 Detailed Fossil March Fly Insect Green River FM Uintah County UT Eocene Age
Location: Uintah County, Utah
Weight: 1.1 Ounces
Dimensions: 1.8 Inches Long, 1.7 Inches Wide, 0.4 Inches Thick (Plate)
Insect Dimensions: 0.6 Inches Long, 0.4 Inches Wide
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
50 million years old, Eocene age
March Fly Insect
Fifty million years ago, Fossil Lake existed in what is now southwest Wyoming. Of its estimated maximum area of 930 square miles, about 500 square miles of sediment remain. The central 230 square miles of the ancient lake bed contain highly fossil-rich sediments and related geological features, including deltas, beaches, springs, and rocks from both center and nearshore environments. The lake's unusual chemistry prevented decay and scavenging of dead organisms, allowing millimeter-thick layers of alternating limestone to form slowly. These laminated limestones hold the highest concentration of fossil fish worldwide. The fossils, along with other aquatic life and geological features, make Fossil Lake the best Paleogene record of a freshwater lake ecosystem. Since their discovery in the 1870s, many perfectly preserved fossil fish have been recovered. Along with the fish, a complete aquatic ecosystem is preserved, including cyanobacteria, plants, insects, crustaceans (shrimp, crawfish, and ostracods), amphibians (frogs and primitive salamanders), alligators, turtles, birds, and mammals, such as the oldest pantolestid (an otter-like animal). The surrounding subtropical terrestrial ecosystem is also represented by rare fossils, including a horse, two snakes, lizards, two bat species, birds, apatemyids (arboreal insectivores), miacids (primitive carnivores), insects, and over 325 types of leaves, seeds, and flowers.
