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Thought I would show some of the Fossils I have found locally. These have actually been setting in my garage for over 20 years, on a shelf. They are from the Modelo Formation, late Miocene. I am familiar with the Modelo Formation as one finds it in many road cuts or eroding out of hills sides all thru the Santa Monica Mtns; the Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mtns. I use to spend a good deal of time splitting pieces of Modelo, looking for the fish fossils one can often find in them. a Friend of mine from years ago & myself just called all the fish we found Herring, though I am not certain that's what they are. Some look like Herring, but others look like Sardines and even Anchovies. They run in length from 1 inch up to 9 inches, possibly 10 inches. I think we just liked the fact we found cool looking Fish Fossils. It is fun splitting along seams as you hear this sound not unlike that of ripping a piece of Cardboard slowly. We knew we were likely to find fish fossils when we'd hear that sound... a number of the Fish we'd find came out headless or the head was disarticulated and hard to figure what we were looking at. But it didn't matter - it was just Fun looking at an 18 million year old plus fish. two of the photos are of the body and partial tails. , which is usually what we would find. the third photo is what i call a 'Puke', it looks like some other fish puked the remains of a smaller fish they had ate.. I am not 100% on that , but it seemed to fit nicely as a description.. These pukes are interesting in and of themselves. I have never unearthed a larger Fish fossil in the Modelo, but I know where there is one you can go look at, it's in Gaviota State Beach near Santa Barbara. The boulder it's in is on the Beach back towards Santa Barbara, the fish is probably 18 inches or more in length (Hard to tell as the back end is still covered in Shale), It looks like a Kelp Bass (Calico Bass) to me. .. I haven't visited it since 1989, I do hope it's still there.. These fossils don't look as awesome as many posted here, But I like them myself.... Thanks for your time, DEAN ~~~~
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Taxonomy according to Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis from Fritzsche, 1980, p. 217: "A Hipposyngnathus from the upper Modelo Formation of southern California with about 22 dorsal rays; 20-22 trunk rings; 42-44 tail rings; snout 1.5-1.9 in head; orbit 7.8-12.0 in head; pouch rings equal to trunk rings; pectoral fin present but rays not countable; pouch ridge as long as adjacent trunk. Maximum size known 242 mm SL. Discussion about the genus Hipposyngnathus by Fritzsche, 1980, p. 218: "The genus Hipposyngnathus is unusual in having a very exaggerated ventral trunk ridge. Jerzmanska (1968) suggested that the males alone had this ridge and that it was the site of egg deposition. She also speculated that pouch flaps were present on either side of the ridge. However, the extant genus Maroubra also has an enlarged ventral trunk ridge, although not so well developed as in Hipposyngnathus, and its eggs are not protected by flaps. It seems improbable that Hipposyngnathus had brood-pouch flaps." Identified by oilshale using Fritzsche, 1980. References: Jerzmańska, A. (1968). Ichtyofaune des couches à ménilite (flysch des Karpathes). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 13(3), 379-488. Fritzsche, Ronald A.(1980). Revision of the eastern Pacific Syngnathidae (Pisces: Syngnathiformes), including both Recent and fossil forms. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Vol 42, 181-227. Přikryl, Tomáš & Krzeminski, Wieslaw & Kania, Iwona. (2011). New information about the anatomy of a peculiar fish of the genus Hipposyngnathus Daniltshenko, 1960. Comptes Rendus Palevol - C R PALEVOL. 10. 559-566. 10.1016/j.crpv.2011.05.001.
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