Exotic Needle Fish Fossil from Lebanese Lagerstätte

Description: A rarely seen member of the Order Aulopiformes, Family Dercetidae, it is a member of the bony fishes known as a “needle fish” due to its body shape which comes from en-Nammoura. The en-Nammoura location is quite different in its fauna from either Hajoula or Hakel. It is thought to have been slightly younger than either of those locations. Based upon a high level of preserved terrestrial plants, it is further thought to have been closer to land, albeit islands rather than the continental coastline. Fish are far more rare at en-Nammoura, with very few recorded multiple specimens found. The upper and lower jaws have been extended into a rostrum; these fish were predators of smaller fish. The genus went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, passing the way of the dinosaurs.

Also see: Lebanese Lagerstätte