Fossil Branches With Stingray and Fish

AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE PRESENTATION OF FOSSIL BRANCHES FROM THE FOSSIL LAKE OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION

Fossil branches of any appreciable size and level of preservation are extremely rare finds in the Green River Formation's Fossil Lake. The current display presents two large branches alongside a number of unidentified leaves, as well as one of the rarer fishes from Fossil Lake, Heliobatis radians, an extinct species of stingray.

Finding plant fossils in Fossil Lake is particularly challenging because they rarely have any thickness to detect during excavation. Thus, the only way branches such as these are discovered is when a layer of rock is fortuitously split in just the right place, or if it is exposed in the laboratory as another fossil is being prepared. As is the case here, many plant species from Fossil Lake remain unidentified due to the lack of diagnostic characteristics to place them in an existing family or order.

REFERENCES:

Grande, Lance. The Lost World of Fossil Lake. University of Chicago Press, 2013, p. 341.