Knightia alta Fish, Eocene, USA

Description

SIZE (Picture scale cube=1cm): 65-120mm (Range)

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Specimen: Knightia alta
Species: fish
Age: Green River Formation, Eocene Period
Location Found: Wyoming, USA

Knightia is a prehistoric fish that lived in the fresh water lakes and rivers of North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 33.9 million years ago. They belong to the same taxonomic family as herring and sardines, and likely fed on algae and diatoms, as well as insects and the occasional smaller fish. Knightia fish had heavy scales, small conical teeth, and rows of dorsal and ventral scutes that ran from the back of the head to the medial fins. They were schooling fish and are often preserved as fossils still in their shoals, with some specimens even being preserved on top of each other!

These fish are genuine fossils, however, it is usually only the skeletal section of the fish that is left when they are found in the matrix due to the rest decomposing over time. These skeletal remains can be slightly incomplete or not overly recognisable as to the what way the fish is laying etc. so the preparers will paint the piece with a brown stain to give a protective layer, and to help highlight the correct position of the fish, and it is not uncommon for them to paint where the fins etc would have been so to portray what the actual fish would have looked like.