A highly important and scientifically rare discovery of a wonderfully preserved bony fish skull that displays distinctive mandibles and fully articulated skeletal maxillary with elongate and ferocious teeth between its well-defined maxilla (upper) and mandible (lower) predatory jaws. Now presented on THE FOSSIL STORE™ AES | Bronze stand series for that special space. 

This Brychaetus Muelleri fish is one of the bony ray-finned fishes of the Eocene period, situated in modern-day North Africa, which was once part of Gondwana and later Pangea before they broke up and formed the west, east Gondwana and Laurasia and fossils of the period may be discovered in North Africa and South America. It is also not unusual to locate remains of the bony ray-finned fish right here in the United Kingdom, reinforcing the theory of shifting continents and tectonic plates.

Discovered in a region of Morocco as a by-product of phosphate mining in the region which in prehistory belonged to Gondwana and was associated with modern-day South America. Once the whole region of North Africa was underwater, seas filled with marine life. Khouribga is the capital of the Khouribga Province in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region near Casablanca and is the administrative centre of a huge phosphate mining industry run by the state. The by-product is extraordinary fossils of the Cretaceous to Paleogene periods.

Osteoglossiformes, from Greek meaning; bony tongues, the primitive order of early ray-finned fishes having first appeared in the fossil record from Gondwana before the supercontinent broke up. Gondwana separated from Laurasia around the middle Mesozoic era, in the breakup of Pangaea. Brychaetus muelleri's closest living relative is a giant freshwater fish Arapaima gigas which is found in South America, and a similar fossil fish head discovered from the Isle of Sheppey is housed in the Natural History Museum collection, London.

The fossil skull element exhibits several attributes which merit the accolade of a rare discovery. The teeth are well defined, articulated and with fine bone jaws that have preserved for over 50,000,000 years. The fossilised bone elements have very attractive colours and the shadows that outline the definitions of this speciemne really bring it to life. Overall this is an exceptional item that was discovered in Ouled Abdoun, the phosphate beds of Morocco.

The details

Order: Osteoglossiformes (L.S.Berg 1940).
Family supercontinent: Osteoglossidae.
Scientific name: Teleostean, Teleostei (Müller 1845).
Genus: Brychaetus muelleri Woodward 1901 (arowana).
Geological Age: Eocene period, Ypresian stage 55 to 50 million years ago.
Location: Ouled Abdoun, Near Khouribga Province, Béni Mellal-Khénifra, Morocco.

Brychaetus: W: 27.0 CM / H: 19.0 CM / D: 10.0 CM

In stand: H: 31.0 CM / W: 27.0 CM / D: 10.0 CM / KG: 12.113