File Fish Vert?

[Spoons]

Hey all, I found this little vertebrae at my usual location, sticking out of the mud that comprises the Rio Dell Formation, Pleistocene in age.

 

The best I can identify it as is a Filefish Vertebrae.

Doing a quick Wikipedia search, I learned that some species have been known to enter lagoons and estuaries, which is good news for me since the Rio Dell represents an ancient bay environment.

 

Ive attaches a reference image of some file fish verts from North Carolina. (Source Here: https://www.fossilguy.com/sites/l_creek/lcrk_col_fish.htm)

Id love to hear all your opinions. And thank you for all the help that you guys have given me thus far, this is one of the best communities on the internet.

[Spoons]

My specimen.

[Spoons]

Reference image.

[Fossildude19]

Looks like a pretty good match. 

 

@oilshale  @jdp

[Al Dente]

Here are a couple images of filefish skeletons from http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-fossil-filefish-from-middle-miocene.html and http://www.savalli.us/BIO370/Anatomy/3.FishSkeletonLabel.html

 

 

[Spoons]

I’m just really confused. Filefish aren’t really associated with cold water environments though. Where I live, the ocean, and I’m assuming the ocean 2 ma, isn’t really the right ecosystem for large reef environment 

The most info I can find online all lists modern genera as existing in Reef, and lagoon environments  in warm water