Monday, May 22, 2006

Bear Gulch website

Damocles serratus a fossil shark from Bear Gulch


I have just found this lovely website: Fossil fishes of Bear Gulch

"The Bear Gulch Limestone (Mississippian of Montana) is what is known as a lagerstätte, a well-bedded sequence of limestone layers containing an extremely well-preserved assemblage of fossils. This deposit has yielded one of the most diverse and well preserved fossil fish assemblages in the world. We have excavated approximately 130 species of fish from this deposit over the last 35 years. The site also contains well preserved arthropods, sponges, starfish, conulariids, worms, and other soft-bodied organisms, as well as brachiopods, bryozoans, and molluscs. The Bear Gulch fossils are so well preserved that they provide a window into the life of the Mississippian that has never been available before. This site is dedicated to bringing you and the fishes of the Mississippian together."

It has some amazing pictures, drawings and infromation about the lovely fossils that have been found at Bear Gulch. In addition to fish there are also fossil invertebrates, plants and enigmas. There is just so much content here the creators deserve alot of praise.

See also:

Whitey Hagadorn, 2002, Bear Gulch: An exceptional Upper Carboniferous plattenkalk, in Bottjer, D.J., et al., eds., Exceptional Fossil Preservation: A Unique View on the Evolution of Marine Life: Columbia University Press, New York, p. 167-183. (PDF)

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