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Lot 8320
Classic Living Fossil
3 December 2006, 11:00 PST
Los AngelesUS$25,000 - US$30,000
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Coelacanth
Jurassic
Solnhofen, Germany
Both halves of a superb Jurassic fish from the famous lithographic limestone that produced the Archaeopteryx. Both sides have beautiful dendritic elements contrasting with the yellow limestone matrix characteristic of the classic locality. Until 1938, when a Coelacanth was caught off the east coast of South Africa, this fish was thought to have been extinct by the beginning of the Cretaceous. An ancestor of the first land animals, the Coelacanth is often called a living fossil; the specimen caught in 1938 strongly resembles its oldest known relatives of some 400 million years ago. Specimen length 13in
Jurassic
Solnhofen, Germany
Both halves of a superb Jurassic fish from the famous lithographic limestone that produced the Archaeopteryx. Both sides have beautiful dendritic elements contrasting with the yellow limestone matrix characteristic of the classic locality. Until 1938, when a Coelacanth was caught off the east coast of South Africa, this fish was thought to have been extinct by the beginning of the Cretaceous. An ancestor of the first land animals, the Coelacanth is often called a living fossil; the specimen caught in 1938 strongly resembles its oldest known relatives of some 400 million years ago. Specimen length 13in