3.9" Knightia Eocaena Fossil Fish Green River FM Wyoming Eocene Age COA & Stand

Location: Kemmerer, Wyoming

Weight: 14.2 Ounces

Dimensions: 5 Inches Long, 4.7 Inches Wide, 0.5 Inches Thick (Plate)

Fish Dimensions: 3.9 Inches Long, 1.2 Inches Wide

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50 million years old, Eocene age

Knightia Eocaena is the most common fish in Fossil Lake and may be the most commonly articulated vertebrate fossil in the world. It is Wyoming's State Fossil. Length:  up to 25 cm (10 in).

Around 50 million years ago, a vast body of water known as Fossil Lake covered what is now southwest Wyoming. At its greatest extent, the lake spanned nearly 930 square miles, of which about 500 square miles of sediment remain preserved today. Within the central 230-square-mile fossil bed, researchers have uncovered exceptionally rich fossil-bearing sediments along with remarkable geologic features such as ancient deltas, beaches, mineral springs, and nearshore rock formations.

What makes Fossil Lake truly extraordinary is its unique water chemistry. The environment prevented both decay and scavenging, allowing delicate remains to be preserved as millimeter-thick layers of limestone built up slowly over time. This process created finely laminated limestone deposits containing the highest concentration of fossil fish in the world. Alongside the fish, numerous aquatic organisms and preserved geological structures provide scientists with the most complete record of a Paleogene freshwater lake ecosystem known on Earth.

 Since the discovery in the 1870s, many perfectly preserved fossil fish have been recovered. Preserved within the fish in the laminated limestone is a complete aquatic ecosystem, comprising cyanobacteria, plants, insects, crustaceans (such as shrimp, crawfish, and ostracods), amphibians (including a primitive salamander and a frog), alligators, turtles, birds, and mammals, including the oldest known pantolestid (an otter-like animal). The subtropical terrestrial ecosystem surrounding the lake is also represented by rare fossils, including a horse, two snakes, lizards, two bat species, birds, an apatemyid (an arboreal insectivore), a miacod (a primitive carnivore), insects, and more than 325 types of leaves, seeds, and flowers.