Large hand ax made of bronze in holder from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

Large hand ax made of bronze in holder from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

Dinosaur “EMBROYO EGG”” handmade in transparent egg.

Dinosaur “EMBROYO EGG”” handmade in transparent egg.

Fossil fish "Knightia" in display window from the south of the USA.

Beautiful fossil fish in a nice protective window! Success is assured, these always sell in every stone and museum shop.
SKU
10819
  • Buy 15 for €11.50 each and save 12%

Knightia is an extinct genus of clupeid clupeiform bony fish that lived in the freshwater lakes and rivers of North America during the Eocene. The lineage was founded by David Starr Jordan in 1907, in honor of the late University of Wyoming professor Wilbur Clinton Knight, "a tireless student of Rocky Mountain paleontology." It is the state fossil of Wyoming, and the most excavated fossil fish in the world.

Fossils are all remains and traces of plants and animals that are preserved in rock. Although that is often thought, fossils do not have to be 'petrified'. Indeed, many fossils are not petrified. Even very old rocks are known fossil remains that have hardly changed. Furthermore, many think that fossils are always very old. This is also not correct. Many very young fossils are known, originated in periods known to humans. The science that studies fossils is called paleontology. This area of ​​knowledge helps in the study of the succession of rocks, a branch of geology called biostratigraphy. Because remains of life only fossilize under specific conditions, the fossil information is limited and by definition "incomplete". The word fossil often refers to the bones of dinosaurs or mammoths and it is true that the hard parts of an organism have the greatest chance of being preserved by fossilization. For vertebrates, these are the bones and especially the teeth. The softer tissues of the organism are preserved only in special cases and are therefore much rarer. Softer tissues are only preserved if they quickly become buried under a layer that protects them against any form of rotting or damage. With only the hard parts it is sometimes difficult to form a good picture of the entire organism. A good example of this are the Conodonta, which were found in great numbers for a long time, but were known only from their teeth. It was only when a print of the rest of such an animal was found that it turned out to be a primitive form of the tribe Chordata. Other hard parts, such as shells, are often fossilized in other animal groups. There are a number of special forms of fossilization. In amber, for example, sometimes complete insects are found enclosed because the resin from which the amber is formed forms a good seal against oxidation. This also applies to tar pits on a larger scale. Near the American city of Los Angeles, a good example of this is in the La Brea tar pits. Often the bones of animals caught in the tar pit have been very well preserved. In addition, the trapped animals often attracted predators, which also became entangled. In this way, a "bone graveyard" was formed during the Pleistocene. Very well preserved fossils are often found in clays deposited in stagnant oxygen-free water. Due to the absence of oxygen, plants fossilize particularly well. Very often not the entire water column is oxygen-free, but only the lower part. Such layered water therefore has a normal oxygen content in the top layer. In the top layer, organisms die, which then sink down and then end up in an anoxic environment where they are preserved. Living organisms can also unintentionally end up in the lower anoxic layer, causing them to die and fossilize. In such a deposit, fish are sometimes kept in a cramped manner, indicating asphyxiation. A well-known rock with such fossils is the 'Kupferschiefer' from the Rotliegend in central Germany. In addition to remains originating from organisms themselves, traces that have been made active or passive by organisms are also considered fossils. This includes coprolites (fossilized excrement) and trace fossils such as footprints and burrows. It is not always possible to determine from trace fossils from which animal they originate. They are therefore often given their own taxonomic designation.

 

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