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Fossil Fish ID


PalaeoArt

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Hi Everyone,

About 20yrs ago, I was given an unprepared fossils from a friend of the family (from Oxford in the UK). Admittedly it's taken me 20yrs to get round to preparing it, but now that I have, it seems pretty interesting. I did a basic preparation on this tonight and the fossil fish has come up really nicely. I've no idea when or where it was found as it was simply given to me to practice on. Any guidance from a few fish experts would be brilliant. The matrix was a very hard material (I think a limestone). The total length of the fish is 6 inches.

Any thoughts?

 

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I've got nothing on this one. :headscratch:

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    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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No real idea. This is a Pholidophorus from Dorset http://www.steinkern.de/steinkern-de-galerie/dorset-gb/pholidophorus-sp-13271.html The skull of your fish doesn't look like being a Pholidophorid, but I have no real idea what else it could be.

Ichthyokentema would be another possibility, but the scales of your fish seem to be slightly larger and thicker. http://data.nhm.ac.uk/sr_Latn/dataset/collection-specimens/resource/05ff2255-c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb?q=ichthyokentema&view_id=6ba121d1-da26-4ee1-81fa-7da11e68f68e&filters=collectionCode%3APAL .

 

 

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Thanks everyone for input so far. This is a taxing one. I was wondering whether this could be a type of Semionotiformes - similar to Lepidotes semiserratus (although this tailfins don't match)

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1 hour ago, doushantuo said:

is a vertebral count possible?

Supracleithrum visible?

teeth small & conical?

 

In terms of teeth, I can't see any evidence on this on the lower or upper jaw, but the position of the lower jaw does seem to be obscuring a good view. I've attached a few photos. In terms of the supracleithrum, it's not giving a clear view on the pectoral fin (see photo), but there does seem to be some interesting bone structure on the pelvic fin (see photo). In terms of a vertabral count, silly question, but could you give me some guidance on how I can do this? Is there a standard way to measure this?

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5 minutes ago, fossilized6s said:

Pholidophorus limbatus??

 

I don't think so, Charlie, ... as the dorsal fin in P. limbatus is closer to the head, than the tail. 

 

Not having all the fins complete, and the lack of information on where it was found, all add to the difficulty of identifying this fish. :( 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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1 minute ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

I don't think so, Charlie, ... as the dorsal fin in P. limbatus is closer to the head, than the tail. 

 

Not having all the fins complete, and the lack of information on where it was found, all add to the difficulty of identifying this fish. :( 

 

The lack of background information is definitely a major issue. What makes it slightly more complicated is that the family friend was a prof. of palaeontology at Oxford so it might not be a British fossil.... could sadly be from any global location.

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