**Originally Listed At $2500**

North America, Wyoming, Green River Formation, Eocene Period, ca. 53.5 to 48.5 million years ago. An extraordinary shoal of approximately 317 Knightia fish that fossilized together in what is often called a "life assemblage" because the stone matrix contains a once living community of creatures that died while they were behaving as the normally would - likely hit by a sudden "catastrophic mass mortality" event. Their death and burial in sediment, preserved intimate details of their existence - from this fossil alone we can presume Knightia was a social fish, traveling in schools for protection against larger fish that might prey upon the stragglers. An incredible piece for the size and sheer number of fossils contained in detail! Size: 34.75" L x 1" W x 24" H (88.3 cm x 2.5 cm x 61 cm); 26" H (66 cm) on included custom stand.

The sediment from the Green River Formation was deposited over a 5-million-year span, the layers of flora and fauna may not have fossilized at the same time - but make for interesting composites. The Eocene world was the warmest of the Cenozoic (our current era), with an average mean temperature around 86 F (30 C) (for comparison, the average mean temperature in the last seventy years is around 58 F (14 C). Although the map of the Earth's surface would have been very recognizable to us today, with most of the continents in place and India moving close to its current position, there were basically no ice caps and huge swaths of the landscape were covered with water, including vast inland seas - a drastically different landscape than what the semi-arid Wyoming of today!

Provenance: Private Berthoud, Colorado, USA collection

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#174788

Professionally prepared. Stable fissures along peripheries of matrix. Great preservation to fossils.