The original slab, as purchased, with the coelacanth ossified lung in close proximity to a series of associated, but disarticulated wing elements of a large, but indeterminate pterosaur. Credit: University of Portsmouth
Phys.org has a post about an absolutely enormous fish fossil. A paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research describes a coelacanth from the Cretaceous Period that may have measured 5 meters in length. Compared to modern day coelacanth, which rarely grow to 2 meters, this specimen is a giant. The animal lived about 66 million years ago and lived in what is now Morocco. First mistaken for a pterodactyls' skull, the fish came to light during preparation.
Fossilised remains of a fish that grew as big as a great white shark and the largest of its type ever found have been discovered by accident.
The new discovery by scientists from the University of Portsmouth is a species of the so-called 'living fossil' coelacanths which still swim in the seas, surviving the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.
The discovery was purely serendipitous. Professor David Martill, a palaeontologist from the University's School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, had been asked to identify a large bone in a private collection in London.
The collector had bought the specimen thinking the bone might have been part of a pterodactyls' skull. Professor Martill was surprised to find it was not in fact a single bone, but composed of many thin bony plates.
He said: "The thin bony plates were arranged like a barrel, but with the staves going round instead of from top to bottom. Only one animal has such a structure and that is the coelacanth—we'd found a bony lung of this remarkable and bizarre looking fish.
"The collector was mightily disappointed he didn't have a pterosaur skull, but my colleagues and I were thrilled as no coelacanth has ever been found in the phosphate deposits of Morocco, and this example was absolutely massive!"
