Fossil fish PATEROPERCA and squid PLESIOTEUTHIS

This extremely rare fossil scene brings together a PATEROPERCA fish and a PLESIOTEUTHIS squid, frozen in action for nearly 95 million years: the beginning of the Cretaceous. It comes from famous deposits in Lebanon, in the province of Byblos. These limestone formations are known to collectors and museums, because the fauna of the Cretaceous was perfectly preserved there, including here the "soft tissues" of the squid.The dark part in his body being the Belemnite rostrum: the only hard part, a kind of squid cuttlebone. These are the most beautiful marine fossils known, thanks to a lack of oxygen in the water at the time of their death, following torrential rains that led to an over-development of microorganisms -phytoplankton- that consumed all the oxygen.
This fish fossil perfectly illustrates the abundance of the waters of Tethys, the ancient Mediterranean. A true snapshot of the Cretaceous, rare among the hundred species discovered in the limestone deposits of Hajoula.