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

Location: Niobrara Formation, Gove County, Kansas

Weight: 0.7 Ounces 

Dimensions: 1.3 Inches Long, 1.2 Inches Wide, 0.7 Inches Thick

Late Cretaceous, 83 million years old

The item pictured is the one you will receive.

This is a real fossil

Xiphactinus Audax ranked among the largest bony fish of the Late Cretaceous and is regarded as one of the ocean’s most formidable predators. Its powerful tail and wing-shaped pectoral fins propelled the 17-foot (5-meter) creature swiftly through surface waters. Prey, including unsuspecting fish and seabirds, were caught in its distinctive upturned jaw, lined with large, fang-like teeth, which gave it a uniquely fierce, 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 once roamed the vast Western Interior Seaway, an ancient ocean that stretched across much of central North America during the Cretaceous. Though it’s been extinct for ages, if this incredible bony fish were alive today, it would resemble a massive tarpon with impressive fangs!