This stunning fossil is of a Lepidotus minor, from the Jurassic period. Fish were slightly different then to the ones you would see today, they had armored scales that allowed the fossil to be kept in such good condition as they did not rot leaving an almost perfect shape of the fish in the rock.

They mainly populated fresh water lakes or shallow seas.

The Lepidotus were relatively advanced species, with regard to their scales, fins and head structure. Peg like teeth allowed them to crush the shells of their mollusk prey, these were also collected in the medieval times as they were thought to protect from poisoning and were named ‘toadstones’. Their jaws also evolved so the lower one was no longer attached to the jugal bone, meaning they could suck in prey from a larger distance, this is seen in other modern species such as carp.

by Scarlett Cardiff