Fossil Fish (Positive/Negative) & Fossil Lobster. Palaeobalistum goedeli & Pseudastcus sp. . Upper Cretaceous. Haq... (Total: 2 Item)

Description

Fossil Fish (Positive/Negative) & Fossil Lobster
Palaeobalistum goedeli & Pseudastcus sp.
Upper Cretaceous
Haqil, Byblos, Lebanon

One truly incredible "split" fish plate, this dynamic duo presents a very impressive Palaeobatlistum goedeli as the focal point of each irregular rocky piece of sedimentary matrix. The mirror images do complement each other in a most compelling way. This pair is superb, for the locality, and material out of the famed quarries of Lebanon has virtually no restoration, with such fossils having only the overlaying matrix removed simply presenting specimens naturally as they came out of the ground. The variety of ray-finned fish lived from the Triassic until the Eocene, with this considerable example dating to the Upper Cretaceous. At some 7 inches (18 cm) long from tip to tail, this offering is rather large and features a laterally compressed body. Such fish had a larger snout, thick, columnar teeth, and lived a "durophagous" existence, consuming a diet characterized by breaking hard-shelled and exoskeleton-bearing organisms like corals, shelled mollusks, and crabs. The pair of loosely circular fossil fish present wonderfully as a couple, and the tan rocky matrix is full of layers and fracturing, to be expected. A bonus is a sizable representation of a decapod crustacean - resembling a crayfish - at the bottom of the large substantial plates as though connected to the much larger fish above. An additional offering is a small fossil fish of unknown variety on the rocks slightly away from the tail of the fish which looks a bit like a bow radiating out from the robust body. The display potential of this incredible pairing is considerable, and the positive/negative nature of the specimen is spectacular.
Overall Single Plate Measurements: 16.81 x 12.20 x 0.59 inches (42.70 x 31.00 x 1.50 cm)

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