This is a Top Quality Gill Plate from a Giant Fresh Water Coelacanth from the Cretaceous Kem Kem Beds of Morocco! The Plate measures just over 7 inches (17.8 cm) across with one repaired break and no restoration!
In what is now north Africa from about 100.5 to 93.9 million years ago there was a lush tropical rainforest with many rivers and waterways. This forest was home to an astonishing number of diverse species. Many famous dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, various long neck Sauropods, numerous smaller Theropods, large Pterosaurs, a seemingly endless variety of Crocodyliforms and turtles, and a menagerie of fish made their home in this beautiful but terrifying paradise! Among the various fish species were several giant fresh water coelacanths! The coelacanth is an ancient group of fish closely related to the earliest land animals. Known as "lobed fin fish" their fins have bones making them more similar to arms and legs than the fins of ray finned fish. Coelacanths first appeared over 400 million years ago and have remained ever since. Modern Coelacanths live in the Indian ocean and can reach nearly seven feet in length, however the fresh water Coelacanths of the Late Cretaceous could reach over 17 feet! These fish were voracious predators, but were themselves prey for the giant sail back Spinosaurus!
In modern times the Coelacanth is infamous for another reason. For the nineteenth and early twentieth century the lineage was regarded as having gone extinct 66 million years ago, until a specimen from the Indian ocean was presented to scientists and shocked the scientific community, despite the widespread knowledge of the fish's existence among locals A potent and very often mentioned lesson when discussing unknown species!
Much like their modern relatives, fossils from these iconic prehistoric fish are extraordinarily rare, more so than the dinosaurs it shared it's environment with. This is a fantastic piece of a very important lineage in both evolution and scientific understanding!
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Species: Mawsoniidae
Size: just over 7 inches (17.8 cm) across
Found: Morocco
Formation: Kem Kem Beds
Age: 99-93.9 million years old
Repair: one repaired break