NE W DI S C O V E R IE S
A POSSIBLE NEW SPECIES OF ANCIENT FISH DISCOVERED IN CENTRAL UTAH Rick Hunter, Paleontologist It has been said many times that, “many important scientific discoveries are made by everyday people.” Such was the case in 2017 when the Chevalier family of Herriman Utah happened upon a partial fossil fish while collecting paving stones on their grandfather’s property in Sanpete County Utah. The fish was discovered when one of the stones split open exposing the fossil. Being Thanksgiving Point members, they brought the find to the paleo lab at the Museum of Ancient Life to have it identified. The initial assessment revealed that this was something quite different from the usual fish species we see from that time and place. After telling the story of the discovery and learning that it might be something special, they decided to donate the specimen to the museum. The fossil needed to be prepared, meaning that the matrix or rock covering the bone had to be removed. This required about 60 hours of meticulous work using carbide needles and a dissecting microscope. The bone was very fragile, and every detail needed to be exposed so that a complete study could be done (fig. 1). The skull was even removed from the rock so that elements that were not visible on the top side could hopefully be seen on the bottom side. This was very difficult because fish skulls are fragile and composed of many individual elements that are usually crushed completely flat during the fossilization process. However, it proved to be worth the effort as it helped to identify the family group that the fish belonged to. The initial preliminary study revealed that the fish belongs to the family Esocidae, which include the Pike and Pickerels and to the genus Esox, the same genus as the modern living Northern Pike. Pike are voracious predatory fish that would eat almost anything including other fish, frogs, snakes and even waterfowl. They were well equipped for this task as is evident by the many sharp teeth in the mouth of this specimen (fig. 2) and its modern-day counterpart the Northern Pike (fig. 3).
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THAN KSG I V I NG P O I NT G A ZE T TE
fig. 1 - Fossil Pike from Sanpete Co. Utah after preparation.
fig. 2 - Pike skull (Rt. side) showing lower jaw with teeth after preparation.
