Fossil Fish Aspiration Mioplosus & Diplomystus Green River Formation Wyoming COA

Description

Here is an excellent, genuine fossil of an aspiration, from the world-famous fossil beds of Fossil Lake, Green River Formation, Wyoming. From the Eocene, 52 million years ago. Free shipping in the USA.
This specimen shows a Mioplosus in its vain attempt to swallow a young Diplomystus.  You can tell it is a Diplomystus using a loupe, the indentations from its anal fin rays are clear.
Fish need to have their gill slits opening and closing, to breathe the water. They intake water through  their mouth, and exhale through the gill slits.  Sometimes, a fish will "bite off more than it can chew", and the pressure of the victim fish against the gills makes it impossible for the fish to exhale, and it dies.  This is called fish aspiration.
Note that fish always swallow the victim fish head-first. This makes it easier for the fish to get swallowed, since fish are "aerodynamic" and their fins and scales make it easy for them to move forward. However, this same areodynamic (hydrodynamic?) nature of fish makes it extremely hard to spit the fish back out. So the victim fish remains stuck and we get the fossil we have here.
Getting a good preservation of a fossil aspiration is uncommon. So we got lucky here.
There is a thin  repaired crack through the plate. See photos.
The 2 fish together are about 5.5 inches in length. The plate is about 6.5" wide, and weighs 7.7 oz.
A very cool and unusual conversation piece, and a nice addition to a good fossil collection.
We are happy to enclose a COA (Certificate of Authenticity).  Some words of caution about COA’s: Do not let them become a substitute for learning about the fossils. We have been working with fossils for many years, and we have seen hundreds of very nice-looking COA’s, some that are wrong, mis-describing a specimen. In addition, the person selling the item is often the one who writes the COA (potential conflict of interest). Finally, a COA without a photo of the exact item described, tied to that COA, is worthless, as it can later be placed next to any fish fossil.  We suggest that instead of relying on a COA, that people read and study the subject.
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