not a Betta, but....

[Feral]

I thought you folks might enjoy this pic of a specimen from one of my old fossil quarries in western Wyoming since you enjoy the little finny critters :

Diplomystus dentatus
Order Ellimmichthyiformes, Family Ellimmichthyidae
Geologic Time: Lower Eocene (50 million years ago)
Green River formation




This is a very young juvenile, adults go to 20" or so.

[Adastra]

That's really nice--what a detailed specimen! The head shape is very interesting.

[Feral]

Originally Posted by Adastra

That's really nice--what a detailed specimen! The head shape is very interesting.

Yes, the host rock for these fossils preserves detail extremely well- the dark flecks you see to the right and lower right of the fish are actually individual scales that detached from this 2" fish! On occasion and looking closely, I actually found mosquitos so finely preserved that you could see the veining in the wings. Great fun to work this rock and highly profitable too

The head shape would indicate that this was a surface feeder and the presence of teeth points towards it being a predator. Much clearer in larger specimens of course.

[Alex09]

pretty neat!

[MrVampire181]

I love fossils :)

Thats so cool!!

[Posaune]

I've always had a fascination with the ancient animals, the first book I remember reading was one about dinosaurs and fossils :P Awesome fossil you have!

[lunalove199]

That's awesome! :]

[smerkette]

Back when I was in High School for one of our classes, we used to go out looking for fossils, mostly found trilobytes

[Jupiter]

Whoa, very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[GravityKitty]

Awesome!