A vertebrate fossil found during the field trip

Some of the participants on the field trip may remember that I found a nodule which looked as if it had a fish in it. I've prepared the nodule, using a combination of acid and manual preparation, and it does indeed contain a fish. The preparation was tricky, as the acid does not disolve the matix completely, but reduces it to a muddy mush from which the tiny, delicate bones have to be exposed by hand using a fine needle.

Some pictures of the fish are included here. As you can see, the body has been broken into three parts. A pity: at one time we thought we had a nodule containing three fish! If anyone with an interest in fish or the Tilton fauna generally would like higher quality images, I can send them the originals. I reduced the size and quality very substantially to make them suitable for web publication. The specimen is the collection of New Walk Museum, Leicester and will be accessioned in due course. The collection also holds another Tilton fish specimen, rather smaller but more complete, which was collected and prepared by Mark Evans a few years ago.