Knightia Mass Mortality Plate, Wyoming

This is a mass mortality plate from the Hay Hollow Quarry, part of the Green River Formation in Wyoming. The entire plate is covered in multiple layers of Knightia eoceana with excellent detail and preservation. I have not prepared all the fish to make it more aesthetically pleasing to display otherwise it appears to be a brown mass and the details become more difficult to see. This piece is backed in maple plywood for protection. It is well suited for display in a suitable stand or a hanging wire can be added so it can be displayed on a wall. This piece measures approximately 12-1/2” x 12” and is a hefty 1-1/2” thick before the plywood.

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Knightia- These fish are by and large the most abundant and prolific fish from the Green River Formation. They are clupeid fish, which are related to modern herring, and average between 3 and 5 inches with a maximum size of 10 inches. Much like modern herring, Knightia was apt to school throughout its life in the pursuit of its favorite food, plankton. There are two recognized species of Knightia, K. eoceana and K. alta. K. eocana is the more common of the two and is substantially more abundant in Fossil Lake deposits. Mass mortality plates have produced significant evidence of the enormity of school sizes for Knightia species, with a few large plates averaging 100 fish per square meter.