Every Friday, Fossil Butte National Monument, located near Kemmerer, Wyoming, shares photos of fossils.
On Friday, Jan. 17, they talked about a fossil showing a “Gar” species of fish for “FossilFriday.”
“One of the Gar species that can be found in the rocks of Fossil Butte is Atractosteus atrox, formerly known as Lepisosteus atrox,” Fossil Butte National Monument says. “This fish is one of the more rare finds and is known only from specimens ranging from 5 to almost 7 feet in length.”
“This large fish may have ambushed ducks swimming in fossil lake like its modern relatives do today in the Midwest. The smaller fish probably stayed in the shallower nearby rivers until they were large enough to safety hunt in the lake. Gars first appeared in the Cretaceous Period haven’t changed much since then.”
