COLLECTIONS & RESEARCH

A Wonderful Example of a Fossil Fish

Table of Contents

  1. An Overlooked Plesiosaur
  2. Ichthyosaur tooth
  3. A Wonderful Example of a Fossil Fish
  4. Brother and Sister Find Sea-Dragon in Cliffs
  5. Lower Jurassic Leaf
  6. Plesiosaur Vertebrae
  7. Small Ichthyosaur from Blue Lias Ledges
  8. Dapedium from Lang’s Fish Beds Found in May 2008 Landslip
  9. The Beast in the Cellar

Dapedium

This wonderful Dapedium was found at Black Ven by Pete Langham in 1987. It was in a nodule that he spotted sticking out of the mud. Pete saw fossilised scales on the edge of the nodule so rather than splitting it on site he took it home intact in his back pack. As you can imagine from its size, the nodule was rather heavy. Rumour has it that the weight caused Pete to overbalance and require assistance to get up again but it was all very worth while.

This specimen and the smaller one found by Tom Loughlin (see lower down this page) have been made available to Sarah Stephens of Bristol University to carry out research on towards her Master’s dissertation.

Photo showing Sarah working with the fossil Dapedium but by the time you read this it should be back on display in the Museum.

Sarah agrees with my description of this fossil fish. She says “This Dapedium is an absolutely gorgeous fossil and it’s been fabulous to be able to see him. Not only is he huge, but his skull is so wonderfully preserved you can identify nearly all of his bones; details like the ossification (between the bones) in his lower jaw helps distinguish between species and aren’t always clear in less beautiful specimens.”

The picture to the right shows Sarah working with the specimen but by the time you read this it should be back on display in the Museum.

By the way, the first ever Dapedium was found by Mary Anning. Guess where?