1.1" Fossil Gar Fish Scale - Cretaceous

This is a scale of a Cretaceous aged Gar, L. pankowskii. Because these fish are only known from isolated scales and a few skull elements their exact classification is under debate. Previously they have been assigned to the genus Lepidotes, but this classification has been called into question.

This scale was collected from the Kem Kem Beds in Southern Morocco. The Kem Kem Beds includes a diverse assemblage of both fish and dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus which would have likely preyed upon they large Gars.

A paper on this Late Cretaceous fish assemblage can be found at:

Taxonomic Composition and Trophic Structure of the Continental Bony Fish Assemblage from the Early Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Morocco