This is the “Fossil Friday” post #37.  Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website.  We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Please include a short description or story.  Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!

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This week we have an amazing fossil specimen from David Duck, who is a paleoartist.  He makes life-like models of various fossil plants and animals.  You might remember that Dave contributed some photos of fossils and a model of Acanthodes beecheri back in Mazon Monday #9.  Now, he’s back at it with a breathtaking Rhabdoderma exiguum fossil from Mazon Creek.  Rhabdoderma is an extinct genus of coelacanth fish.  This fossil is doubly rare as fish are pretty scarce in the Mazon Creek fossil biota and it goes without saying that fossils of this quality are even rarer!

This fossil was collected many years ago.  It is about 75 mm long.

Dave created a maquette, which is a small sculpture, of this fossil.

To do it, he used fossils from other localities to gain insight on the fine details of the scales and fins.  Here are some pictures of a Rhabdoderma elegans from the Linton, OH locality, which is also from the late Carboniferous Period.  The following photos are by John Spina Jr., who has some fascinating fossil posts on Facebook.