MOTH locality

MOTH
Geologic site
A cast of the "Wonder Block", a rock slab from MOTH with 7 different species (8 fish in total) in one place:
an unnamed ischnacanthid (center left), an unnamed osteostracan (top left), Brochoadmones (two largest fish near the center), Lupopsyrus (above the left Brochoadmones), Drepanolepis (bottom center), Obtusacanthus (top right), Furcacauda (bottom right)
MOTH
Coordinates: 62°33′N 127°45′W / 62.55°N 127.75°W / 62.55; -127.75
LocationNorthwest Territories, Canada
AgeLochkovian (Early Devonian)

The Man-on-the-hill (MOTH) locality is a fossil site in the Northwest Territories of Canada renowned for its incredibly well-preserved Early Devonian fish fossils. Discovered in the Mackenzie Mountains in the 1960s, MOTH accumulated greater prestige in the late 20th century, with many fossil fish species only known from this one site. The fauna consists of both jawed fish (mostly acanthodians, the "spiny sharks") and jawless fish (armored osteostracans and pteraspidomorphs, as well as distinctive fork-tailed furcacaudiform thelodonts). The geology of MOTH reconstructs the area as a calm marine environment with mixed sediment sources along the western coast of Laurussia.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.