EOCENE FOSSIL FISH - 47 million years old - Messel Pit, Germany

FOSSIL FISH

Atractosteus strausi

47 million years old (Eocene)

Messel Pit, Messel, near Frankfurt, Germany

This lovely fossil fish is from the world famous Messel Pit in Germany.  It shows beautiful detail with glossy, diamond-shaped scales.

The Messel Shales represent a lake bed that was surrounded by sub-tropical forest during the Eocene Epoch. The slow deposition of mud on the lake bottom with no oxygen was perfect for fossil preservation. A remarkable diversity of fossils have been found, including mammals, birds and reptiles.

The pit was worked for oil shale until the 1970s when it finally closed. For several years it was available for commercial fossil collecting, which is when this fossil was found. The Messel Pit was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/720

The fossil has been prepared using the resin transfer process. This is the only way to preserve Messel fossils as the shales in which they are found would disintegrate if allowed to dry out. The fossils are therefore coated in resin and when this has hardened, the shale is removed from the other side, leaving the fossil embedded in a block of resin.

Presented in a display box.

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