1.2" Cretaceous, Soft Bodied Squid Fossil With Shrimp - Pos/Neg

Cretaceous, Soft Bodied Squid Fossil With Shrimp - Pos/Neg #202155

This is a 1.2" long, unidentified soft bodied squid that preserved in association with a small shrimp (Carpopenaeus sp.). The plate was collected from the Upper Cretaceous marine deposits of Hjoula, Lebanon, making these fossils approximately 98 million years old. Soft bodied organisms are uncommon in the fossil record. This fossil includes the quill from the body of a cephalopod, indicating that this is likely some type of squid.

It comes with both the positive and negative split, each of which is accompanied by an acrylic display 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