Double Cretaceous Crusher Fish (Coccodus) Plate - Hjoula, Lebanon

This is plate of limestone that contains two naturally associated Cretaceous crusher fish (Coccodus insignis) from Hjoula, Lebanon. These fish had small molariform teeth in their mouths which would have allowed them to easily crush the shells of small mollusks and crustaceans that they found while searching the mud. Some of these molariform teeth can easily be seen on the largest of the two fish.

These fish measure 5" long, 3.2" long, and the plate is 5.5 x 5.2". There is a repaired crack through the largest of the two fish. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

The discovery of amazingly preserved marine fossils near Hjoula, 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 one of the quarries at Hjoula, Lebanon