Prepare Your Own Fossil Fish Kit - Knightia or Diplomystus

This is a great gift for both kids or adults to spark their interest in fossils. It is a kit allowing them to prepare their own 50 million year old fossil fish. These fossil fish come from the Green River Formation of Wyoming. This formation yields some of the best preserved fish fossils in the world.

The kit comes with a slab of shale with a fossil fish buried just underneath the surface. We know that it is there because raised lumps from its bones can be seen on the surface and we have marked the approximate location of the fish in pencil. There is a small needle-like tool included that allows you scratch the rock away to expose the fish. Instructions and an informational sheet are also included.

The fish will be one of the two common species in the fossil fish quarries, Knightia eocaena or Diplomystus dentatus, though we can not definitively tell which one while still buried. While we can guarantee there is a fossil fish within the rock and there is a pretty good chance of it being complete, there is no telling for sure what may lie below the surface.

NOTE: Fully preparing this fish will take many hours of work and the results depend mainly on the patience and skill of the person doing it. Don't expect to expose a perfect fish in a half hour. Kids under ten should probably have adult supervision when preparing this fossil.

The two prepared fish pictured in the photos are professionally prepared examples of the species Knightia and Diplomystus from the same fossil fish quarry. More prepared examples can be found at http://www.fossilera.com/fossils-for-sale/green-river-fossil-fish