Fossil Fish Aspiration Choke on Meal Green River Formation Wyoming WY COA 1044

Description

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this order.
Here is a very clear example of fish aspiration, from the world-famous fossil beds of Fossil Lake, Green River Formation, Wyoming. From the Eocene, about 52 million years ago.
Fish are frequently pretty brutal with each other. In this instance, the larger fish is preparing to dine on a smaller victim. But, bad news for the predator: the small fish is blocking the larger fish from intaking any oxygen-rich water into its mouth. With no oxygen coming in by way of water through the mouth, the big fish will die.
There are a lot of fossils where it is tough to tell whether it is really an aspiration, or one fish just happened to die underneath the mouth of another fish.  In this instance, it is easy to tell.  If you look at the smaller fish, you can see its vertebrae. As you get closer to the mouth of the larger fish, you can see the vertebrae twisting up into the mouth. Clearly this little fish was wriggling to try to get away, but its head was in too deep, and it was being dragged into the mouth. That is, until the big fish aspired.
You get the head and a little bit of the body of the predator, as well as the small fish. What we have here is about 2.3" in length. The plate is about 4.5" by 3.5", and it weighs 7.2 oz. (205 grams).
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1044.UYY4BH.TDFYTGX  storage FF