13" Fossil Squid With Soft-Bodied Preservation (Pos/Neg)

This is an amazing, Upper Jurassic fossil squid (Plesiotheuthis prisca) from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. It is extrodinary example of soft-bodied preservation with even the tentacles being preserved and easily visible. The squid itself is 13" long and it's located on an unbroken, 17.5x15 slab of rock. Both the positive and negative splits of the fossil are included.

The Solnhofen limestones is a famous Lagerstätte in Germany that offer amazing preservation of Upper Jurassic fossils. It is where on of the most famous fossils of all time, Archaeopteryx was found. The fine grained limestone makes excellent building materials which has let to heavy quarrying over the past two centuries which as a result has led to some amazing fossils being unearthed.

This area represented an archipelago at the edge of a sea. Due to high salt content, the lowest levels in the water column could not support much life and was devoid of oxygen. This lack of scavengers on the bottom of the sea led to amazing preservation of the fauna found there.