Scientists Find Fossil of Ancient Species of Armored Fish in Pennsylvania

Posted on March 27, 2013

Scientists have discovered a new species of armored fish in 370 million-year-old red sandstone deposits in a highway roadcut in Pennsylvania. The illustration of the Devonian armored fish, Phyllolepis thomsoni, shows how it may have appeared when alive.

In this video, Dr. Ted Daeschler shows the fossil and a rubber cast made by pouring latex into its natural impression in the rock. Once the latex hardened, Daeschler peeled it out and dusted its surface with fine powder to better show the edges of the bony plates and the fine ridges on the fish's bony armor. Take a look:

The armored fish is one of two new Devonian fish species described by Daeschler in the Bicentennial issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with different co-authors. The other new species, a lobe-finned fish discovered in northern Canada, is described here.