Coelacanth Fossil and Preservation Detail

[Agos1221]

Helllo friendly folks of the fossil forum,

 

I have been searching for a coelacanth fossil on and off for years now. I finally found one that preserved all the characteristic fin "limbs" in profile from an Ebayer who acquired it while in Madagascar.

 

I was pleased with the  degree of preservation on both split halves. To my surprise, taking a hand lens to the more concave  side revealed scale preservation. I know this is typical of bony fish with scutes like Gars from the Green River, WY - but! Is this unusually good for nodules in Madagascar? More to the point, am I keeping something away from the scientific eye that should be seeing this? I imagine 3-D scanning could reveal finer details for comparison to the living fossil ancestor today.

 

Attached are photos taken with my iPhone and two photos through a regular light microscope at 2x magnification. Thank you for any advice or knowledge you may have on these classes of coelacanths. 

 

Warmly,

Mark

[Fossildude19]

I believe that the Whiteia woodwardi from Madagascar are well studied, (I think for over 100 years), ... and many of the pictures on line seem to show the same preservation, ... so, I feel pretty confident saying that you are not  keeping anything important away from science.  

 

However, I would like to comment on the beauty of this fossil . It is quite a good example of the species.       

Congratulations on obtaining this awesome fossil!

Thanks for posting this. 

Regards,

[doushantuo]

 

Moy-Thomas was bad at spelling,I notice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Agos1221]

Thank you, Tim! I guess I should have done a little research before thinking I had something completely out of the ordinary for the area. Thank you for appreciation, they are not too easily tracked down it seems. Thanks for the reply as well popperian falsifacator - does that page indicate I should wash the skull section off with soapy water to get the encrustrations off? Seems a little risky...

[siteseer]

There was a time when these nodules were abundantly available at shows.  The coelacanth was a less common specimen than other fishes and some shrimp, I think.  Coelacanths have always been in demand because it's the famous "living fossil" and the fins are so distinct.  I remember the reptile called "Tangasaurus" at the time was uncommon as well.  You could get a foot of that in a nodule.  The Madagascar government cut back on allowing export of these some time ago (15-20 years ago?).

 

I think the foot was actually a print of the bones.

 

Jess