Fish scales and bones show very young age of Baltic flint erratics!

[D.N.FossilmanLithuania]

Dear Guys,

 

Recently I write the book in the Microsoft Word document and collect evidences about all bony fish and tetrapod pieces I have found

and recently I want to show some teleost fish remains found in flint erratics that speak about very young age of some flints that can be found in gravel of Lithuania.

Some fish remains (I do not speak about that appeared in Cretaceous or Paleocene- Eocene) belong to fish taxa that is very young and appeared in Oligocene, Miocene or even Pliocene age. 

It is the such fauna as slickheads (Oligocene- recent), mulets (Miocene- recent), Salmon like fishes (in Europe they lived from Miocene), 

triplefins (Miocene- recent), dory fishes (foun only in Oligocene fossil record), pikes (Oligocene- recent), Minnows (most typical to Neogene and Quarternary), gobies (in Europe live from Oligocene to recent) and the genus Atherinomorus (fossil record is known only in Pliocene of Jamaica). 

These remains show that flint erratics in Lithuania are much younger than previously thought!

The main fossils of fishes are scales and I will share the links into evidence of each group and its temporal range. 

At first I will show slickheads (Alepocephalidae family).   

The link into scales of Alepocephalus, Zeus (dory fish) and Atherinomorus:

http://www.senckenberg.de/files/content/forschung/publikationen/vertebratezoology/vz66-3/05_vertebrate_zoology_66-3_braeger_275-386.pdf

The links into temporal ranges of these fishes: 

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=265746 (Alepocephaliformes)

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=35837  (Zeiformes)

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=35837 (Atherinomorus)

 

Dory fish scale picture:

 

Atherinomorus scales:

 

The link in goby scale: 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjan02/fishes.html

Gobiidae temporal range (notice in Europe):

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=252928

 

Goby scale picture in my collection:

 

Mullet temporal range:

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=252928

Mullet scale appearance:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/e-Photographs-of-fish-scales-from-A-Lates-calcarifer-B-Mugil-cephalus-C-Chanos_fig1_270345410

 

Mullet scales in collection:

 

 

 

[D.N.FossilmanLithuania]

The other group- Tripterygiidae (or triplefins)

Temporal range (shown in timeline):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threefin_blenny

The appearance of scales (the main features are one row of sharp ctenii in bottom and the center of circuli also in the bottom of scale):

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Types-of-body-scales-A-elliptic-Bellapiscis-lesleyae-SL-57-mm-B-oblong-Ruanoho_fig4_259450297

 

Triplefin scales in the collection:

 

The other group (Salmons)

Temporal range: http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=265822 (I was wrong- the oldest fossil is found in Eocene of The United Kingdom).

The appearance of scales: 

https://fishbio.com/field-notes/inside-fishbio/reading-scales

 

The scales in collection:

 

And the last- Minnow cleithrum :

 

Extinct minnow species in wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuciscinae (It is Evarra and Stypodon). 

The extinction of Evarra:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evarra (became extinct very few time ago). 

The stump tooth minnow Stypodon also lived in Late Cenozoic. 

 

Minnow (e.g. dace, shiner examples) cleithrum identification:

http://www.glfc.org/pubs/misc/2010-02.pdf They are always narrow and angle shaped!

 

Please comment, what do you think about the youngest age of the flints by the shown fossils?

 

Best Regards

Domas

[JohnJ]

Remarkable images, Domas.  Do you have photos showing the wider perspective of the scales in the overall rock?

 

[Innocentx]

All I can say is WOW! and I envy your access to fish fossils. As John said, "remarkable images"!