Two Cretaceous Fossil Fish (Gaudryella) and Shrimp - Hjoula, Lebanon

This is a nicely detailed example of two fossil fish (Gaudryella sp.), collected from the Cretaceous aged marine deposits near Hjoula, Lebanon. These fish are naturally associated with a fossil shrimp (Carpopenaeus sp.). While Gaudryella doesn't have any close living relatives, it would be in the same order as modern Salmon and Trout. There is a partial, third, unidentified fish on the reverse side of the specimen.

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