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Fish? Arthropod? What in the world is this thing?


casadelshawn

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Another mystery specimen; this one belongs to a relative who doesn't take good pics and is far away, so I'll begin by apologizing for the photo quality.

 

No locality info, but this person has many other fossils from Morocco, so that's a possibility. 

 

It has hints of fish, but only hints; I think I see one or two fins. What I can't work out is the overlapping arrangement of segments. It looks vaguely like an arthropod (Aglaspid, maybe?), but again, I think I see a fin or two. Uuuughhghghghghghhhh.... It's driving me absolutely bonkers.

 

Help?

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Edited by casadelshawn
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Hi Casadelshawn, I risk to disappoint you, hopefully saving your sanity by telling you that it is indeed a fish.

I cannot tell you exactly what part of the anatomy preserves in this overlapping way, but I have seen it in Brazilian fish fossils before. maybe phosphatized muscle?

Someone on the forum may know more.

Best Regards,

J

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something

Thomas Henry Huxley

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3 minutes ago, Mahnmut said:

I risk to disappoint you, hopefully saving your sanity by telling you that it is indeed a fish.

No disappointment at all! I did think about Vinctifer comptoni; this has similar preservation to other Santana Formation critters, so that's a possibility. Thank you!

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Definitely a Vinctifer comptoni.

Most of the skull, pectoral fins, and part of the body.

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Cool.

I have looked at pictures of well preserved Vinctifer specimens, and they also have this segmented surface, so I assume it is their armour, dermal bones?

Phosphatized muscle tissue has been described from the santana formation as far as I know, but its not what we see here.

Best Regards,,

J

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something

Thomas Henry Huxley

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  • 4 weeks later...

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