Milananguilla lehmani

Milananguilla lehmani Blot 1975

Eocene

Lutetian

Monte Bolca near Verona

Italy

This is an Anguilliformes, probably Milananguilla lehmani, from the Pesciara of Monte Bolca, about 30 kilometers north-east of Verona in Italy. The length of this fish (extended) is 11cm or about 4". Findings of full skeleton fossil eels are normally extremely rare whereas Monte Bolca is exceptionally rich in fossil Anguilliformes with 13 or more genera ranging in size from a mere 5 cm to more than 1m: Anguilloides (Cadrobbi), Bolcanguilla (Blot), Bolcyrus (Blot, with Bolcyrus bajai in this album http://www.thefossil...bolcyrus-bajai/ ), Dalpiaziella (Cadrobbi), Eomyrophis (Whitley), Goslinophis (Blot), Milananguilla (Blot), Paranguilla (Bleeker, with Paranguilla tigrina in this album http://www.thefossil...guilla-tigrina/ ), Patavichthys (Blot), Proteomyrus (Cadrobbi), Veronanguilla (Blot), Voltaconger (Blot) and Whitapodus (Blot).

The location is known as Pesciara or "Fishbowl" due to its many marine fossils.The sediments from Monte Bolca is from the Eocene epoch, the Lutetian, so the fish is about 50 million years old.

The entire, abundantly fossiliferous formation consists of 19 meters of limestone, all of which contain fossils, but interspersed in which are the lagerstätten layers that contain the highly preserved specimens. Within these layers, the fish and other specimens are so highly preserved that soft tissue preservation can is observable and even the skin colour pattern can sometimes be determined (see for example the photo of Paranguilla tigrina in this album).

There are several other related outcroppings in the general vicinity of Monte Bolca that also carry fossils, such as Monte Postale and Monte Vegroni. The term "Monte Bolca" is often used interchangeably to refer to all the sites collectively.

The Monte Bolca deposits where formed in a lagoon which was separated from the open sea by coral reefs. During that time, there was considerable volcanic activity. The volcanoes on the nearby mainland erupted periodically, their lavas and ashes covering the land for some time, locally causing mass extinctions. The sediment is very fine grained limestone; the preservation suggests when the fish died it was rapidly buried in fine sediment that was anoxic.