1.15" Fossil Mantis Shrimp (Pseudosculda) with Four Fish - Lebanon

Fossil Mantis Shrimp (Pseudosculda) with Four Fish - Lebanon #200641

This is a really cool, 1.15" long fossil mantis shrimp (Pseudosculda laevis), collected near Hakel, Lebanon. the limestone also contains four small fossil fish, one of which is only partially exposed.

There are nearly 450 species of mantis shrimp alive today and they are sometime referred to as "thumb splitters" because of how they use their powerful claws to inflict damage to prey with a single strike.

Comes with an acrylic stand.

The discovery of amazingly preserved marine fossils near Hakel, Lebanon dates back many centuries. In fact, they were first mentioned in writing by Herodotus, over 450 years before the birth of Christ. The first scientific work on these localities began in the 1800s: these deposits have been meticulously quarried by several Lebanese families for over a century. We purchase our specimens directly from one of these families.

These deposits represent a warm, shallow sea of the Middle Cretaceous, and have yielded over 70 types of fish and numerous other genera found nowhere else in the world. The preservation on many of these specimens is truly amazing: many examples of soft bodied preservation have been found.

A photo of the quarry at Hakel, Lebanon