Ever hear of the Fiji Mermaid?

[fossilized6s]

I found this Kallidecthes richardsoni Saturday at Mazon. It's preserved in the "life position" which is rare. But also it's tail is turned and fanned out from the dorsal side, which gives this quite the "fiji mermaid" look. This was my best find of the day (that was open) and my best example of this species so far. 

 

 

 

Also there is an eye stalk present which is a bit strange. I didn't think this species had eye stalks.

 

Jack @fiddlehead have you seen eye stalks in this species before? And have you ever seen this tail fan preservation before? 

 

[caldigger]

I saw a Fiji mermaid in Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.

It was a monkey sewn onto a fish body. 

[Missourian]

Much more interesting than the Fiji confection.

[Kane]

4 hours ago, caldigger said:

I saw a Fiji mermaid in Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.

It was a monkey sewn onto a fish body. 

I taught a course on the history of dime museums and freakshows several years ago. The famous Fiji Mermaid was a mainstay in P.T. Barnum's early traveling dime museum show, acquired from off the coast of Japan. And, yep, it was monkey sewn on fish, but very convincingly done. Ugly little thing, and you'd have to put yourself in the mind of the one sewing that thing together... "what the heck am I doing stitching a dead monkey on a dead fish? Yuck!"  

[digit]

Very interesting shrimp tail being displayed there, Charlie.

 

If I'm not deluding myself (easy to do with Mazon nodules), I think you can see evidence of the telson (the pointed last body segment) atop the uropods (tail fins) in your photo.

 

 

I'm used to seeing shrimp with a pair of uropods on either side of the telson (the inner called the endopod and the outer the exopod, quite reasonably). Unless these were somehow folded over each other to form that perfect mermaid fluke shape, I'm not quite sure what's going on with the back end of that fossil (spectacular, by the way). Possibly, the uropods were thin enough not to leave great detail in this nodule and the distinction between the individual uropods is now indistinct. Would love to hear Jack weigh in on this one.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fiddlehead]

You are correct it is a Kallidecthes richardsoni. They belong to hoplocarida which is the ancestral group that modern-day mantis shrimp belong to. And like most crustaceans the eyes are mounted on stalks. Mantis shrimp have one of the most elaborate visual systems in the animal kingdom. And the eyes are formed into zones. In its very simplest terms, the upper zone is for visual light the mid zone is for polarized light. Eyes on K.richardsoni are fairly common and often well preserved. I was asked several years ago by Dr. Fred Schram to look at the Field Museum's collection at the eyes of K.richardsoni. We found that they are also in zones. What is rare in this specimen is you have a visible tail. And most are in a death pose which reminds me of a bent wet cigar.

 

Hope that helps,

Jack

[ynot]

Nice find!

[fossilized6s]

7 hours ago, fiddlehead said:

You are correct it is a Kallidecthes richardsoni. They belong to hoplocarida which is the ancestral group that modern-day mantis shrimp belong to. And like most crustaceans the eyes are mounted on stalks. Mantis shrimp have one of the most elaborate visual systems in the animal kingdom. And the eyes are formed into zones. In its very simplest terms, the upper zone is for visual light the mid zone is for polarized light. Eyes on K.richardsoni are fairly common and often well preserved. I was asked several years ago by Dr. Fred Schram to look at the Field Museum's collection at the eyes of K.richardsoni. We found that they are also in zones. What is rare in this specimen is you have a visible tail. And most are in a death pose which reminds me of a bent wet cigar.

 

Hope that helps,

Jack

Very informative, Jack. Thank you very much! And thanks to everyone else!