Rare Sparnodus Bolca Fish Fossil

Description: This marvelous fossil fish is from a locality of paleontological and historical provenance. Fish fossils from the Monte Bolca Quarry are among the most highly sought, and have for hundreds of years been noted for their beauty, rarity, and exquisite preservation.

This Sparnodus fossil was reassembled from about five large pieces, curated by a master craftsmen using methods unchanged for hundreds of years.

The Monte Bolca quarry has a fascinating and illustrious history. Here are a few comments by the original collector:

The Bolca Quarry is an Eocene Lagerstätte. They mine these fish by boring tunnels deep into the hillside following the seam where the fossil fish layer goes into the mountain. The same family has owned this quarry for almost four hundred years. When the weathered matrix is split the fish open, but the rock ALWAYS shatters; so all but the smallest Bolca fish are "repaired." The bigger ones (any bigger than this, and of course the REALLY big ones) are often put back together from dozens of pieces.” These fish have been collected for CENTURIES, and during the crusades were considered (yep, THOSE crusades) to be remains of the last supper and are still considered to this day by many as evidence of the great flood. Kings of Europe collected them for their sheer beauty and rarity. The Italian government considers Bolca fossils to be a national treasure, and as such, while the government has granted permission for the quarry owners to sell the fish again after many years of prohibition, the tax collectors take approximately half of all proceeds.”

This specimen is the negative. However, all the physical structures are present, including teeth, fins, skull and body parts. Sparnodus from the Bolca Quarry site are represented by two species, Sparnodus vulgaris (Blainville, 1818) and Sparnodus elongatus Agassiz, 1839.

Also see: Class Actinopterygii Fish Fossils