New World, Eocene Epoch, ca. 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago. A limestone slab containing the fossilized remains of three fish and a stand of ferns. The Eocene world was the warmest of the Cenozoic (our current era), with an average mean temperature around 86 F (30 C) (for comparison, the average mean temperature in the last seventy years is around 58 F or 14 C). Although the map of the Earth's surface would have been very recognizable to us today, with most of the continents in place and India moving close to its current position, there were basically no ice caps and huge swaths of the landscape were covered with water, including a vast inland sea in what is today central Asia. This ancient world was ruled by fish and aquatic plants, like those preserved in this slab. Size of slab: 1" L x 33.75" W x 46" H (2.5 cm x 85.7 cm x 116.8 cm)

Provenance: private Illinois, USA collection

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#127090

Thin slab over plastered wood base. All three fish are intact and preserved in the matrix; the ferns have some of their tips cut off the edge of the slab as shown.