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ULTRA RARE PARTIAL PLESIOSAUR SKELETON WITH ARTICULATED VERTEBRAE IN ORIGINAL BLACK SHALE AS FOUND Posidonia Shale - Ohmden, Germany Jurassic (Lower Toarcian): 180 million years ago Superb quality fossils from old collections are always exciting to acquire because often, they are of a quality and type that are impossible to find today and many come from sites that are now protected and forbidden to dig in unlike earlier days when many of these famous sites were open to the public. This specimen is an extreme example of this. It is a massive three dimensional partial skeleton of an enormous PLESIOSAUR still embedded in its shale matrix as it was found. Numerous vertebrae and ribs are exposed with several of the vertebrae still articulated in the spinal column. We received the specimen prepared by only primitive preparation techniques apparently by the original collector. We re-prepared the entire specimen in our lab and further exposed bone and removed decades of old sealers on the bones. The initial specimen was spectacular but what came forth after we completed it was really impressive because the original light colored pigment of the bone was revealed beneath the old chemical sealer. The stone was sealed with a special preservative made for this rock and the completed specimen now affords a much better contrasting condition to see all the bones. There is repair to the slab and bones from clean fractures when originally extracted but there is NO FABRICATION and all bone you see is original and authentic as it was found. Plesiosaur fossils are rare and almost never do you find fossil remains from large examples like this. The articulated bones in their original matrix make for one of the most impressive skeletal fossil displays we have seen. Much of the rock was ground and removed and the bones protrude DRAMATICALLY off the host rock. The photos do not fully display the amount of fantastic relief on the surface of this example. This is an extremely rare fossil and a pure visual treat to witness in person. Fossils like this from this formation have been protected for many years and collecting has been forbidden for decades. Specimens like this are no longer reaching the market except by old private collection liquidation as this example came from. An ultimate MUSEUM PIECE.
A typical plesiosaur had a long neck, a broad body, four large flippers and a relatively short tail. An apt description (of some forms at least) is of "a snake strung through a turtle". Plesiosaurs were one of the first kinds of extinct animal known to science, and were described as early as 1821. The smallest were about 2m long as adults, the largest were enormous pliosaurs up to 20m long, comparable in size or even bigger than sperm whales ( Physeter ). They were possibly the biggest predators of all time, though remains of these giants are rare and fragmentary, and much research remains to be done. We can learn about what they ate from the fossils. Occasionally stomach contents are found with well-preserved specimens, showing that some at least fed on belemnites and ammonites. Other specimens show bite marks from larger predatory forms. There is a wide range in tooth shape, showing that they were adapted to feeding on different types of prey. Long, slender teeth may have been used to rake through sea-floor sediments in the way a swan dabbles on pond bottoms. Larger, more robust teeth seem to be adapted for feeding on armored fish and cephalopods. Some of the bigger pliosaurs had enormous, dagger-like teeth which were used to attack their smaller relatives. A Plesiosaur used stones in it's stomach known as gastroliths. These made it possible for them to swallow their food whole, letting the gastrolith grind the food. The stones may also have served as ballast or weight for deep diving. EXTREMELY RARE AND INCREDIBLE TO SEE IN PERSON - THE FOSSILS FROM THIS SOURCE ARE NOW PROTECTED BY LAW! PHOTOS DO NOT DO THIS ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME SPECIMEN JUSTICE 23.5" x 21" overall, vertebrae centrums 4" across $15900 ICT-001 Actual Item - One Only |
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Special thanks to FRANK DENOTA for permission to use his artwork above. |
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Plesiosaurs were aquatic reptiles, and were an important part of the
marine ecology from the end of the Triassic period 220 million years ago
until the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. Their
remains have been found on every continent. The
plesiosaur are a large and varied group which have been broadly defined
as two distinct types, the long-necked, small-headed plesiosaurs and the
short-necked, large-headed pliosaurs.