Fossil Beetle Insect And Willow Leaf Green River FM Uintah County Utah Eocene Age
Location: Uintah County, Utah
Weight: 0.8 Ounces
Dimensions: 2.3 Inches Long, 2.1 Inches Wide, 0.2 Inches Thick (Plate)
Insect Beetle Dimensions: 0.3 Inches Long, 0.2 Inches wide
Willow Leaf Dimensions: 0.4 Inches Long, 0.1 Inches wide
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
50 million years old, Eocene age
Beetle and Ant Insects
Fifty million years ago, Fossil Lake existed in what is now southwest Wyoming. Out of its estimated maximum area of 930 square miles, about 500 square miles of sediment still remain. The central 230 square miles of the ancient lake bed comprise highly fossiliferous sediments and related geological features, including deltas, beaches, springs, and rocks from inland and nearshore environments. The lake's unique chemistry prevented the decay and scavenging of dead organisms, allowing thin layers of alternating limestone to form gradually. This led to laminated limestones that hold the world's highest concentration of fossil fish. These fish, along with other aquatic life and geological features, make Fossil Lake the best Paleogene record of a freshwater lake ecosystem worldwide. Since its discovery in the 1870s, many well-preserved fossil fish have been recovered. Accompanying these fish in the laminated limestone are remains of an entire aquatic ecosystem, including cyanobacteria, plants, insects, crustaceans like shrimp and crawfish, amphibians such as frogs and primitive salamanders, alligators, turtles, birds, and mammals, notably 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, apatemyid (an arboreal insectivore), miacad (a primitive carnivore), insects, and over 325 types of leaves, seeds, and flowers.
