0.9" Xiphactinus Audax Fossil Vertebrae Cretaceous Era Fish Niobrara FM Kansas

Location: Niobrara Formation, Gove County, Kansas

Weight: 0.2 Ounces 

Dimensions: 0.9 Inches Long, 0.9 Inches Wide, 0.2 Inches Thick

Late Cretaceous, 83 million years old

The item pictured is the one you will receive.

This is a real fossil

Xiphactinus Audax was among the largest bony fish of the Late Cretaceous period and is regarded as one of the ocean’s most formidable predators. Its strong tail and broad, winglike pectoral fins propelled the 17-foot (5-meter) long creature swiftly through surface waters. Fish and seabirds often fell prey to its upward-curving jaw, lined with large, fanglike teeth, which gave the fish a distinctive bulldog-like appearance.

A 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) Xiphactinus could open its jaw wide enough to swallow six-foot-long (two-meter-long) fish whole, but it itself was occasionally prey to the shark Cretoxyrhina.

Xiphactinus Audax ruled the ancient Western Interior Seaway, a vast ocean that once stretched across central North America during the Cretaceous. Long gone from our world, this fierce bony fish would look like a colossal, fang-toothed tarpon if it still prowled the waters today.