1.25" Fossil Gar Scale (Morocco)

Species: pankowskii

AGE: Late Cretaceous (95 million years) View on Geological Time ScaleLOCATION: Taouz, Kem Kem Basin, Morocco

FORMATION: Kem Kem Beds

SIZE: 1.25" long

This is a nice scale of a Cretaceous aged Obaichthyidae Gar. Because these fish are only known from isolated scales and a few skull elements their exact classification is under debate. Previously they have been assigned to the genus Lepidotes, but this classification has been called into question.

This scale was collected from the Kem Kem Beds in Southern Morocco. The Kem Kem Beds includes a diverse assemblage of both fish and dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus which would have likely preyed upon they large Gars.

A paper on this Late Cretaceous fish assemblage can be found at: