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Ancient Animals - Blog Posts

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1 year ago

A photograph of Jeanne Kelly and Marilyn Fox painting a background for Xiphactinus in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins.A skeletal cast of the same fish is hanging overhead.

It’s Fossil Friday! Let’s swim back in time about 85 million years to the Late Cretaceous Period to meet Xiphactinus, a gigantic predatory fish. This species could reach lengths of 17 ft (5.2 m) and was capable of swallowing a 6-ft- (2-m-) long fish whole!

The Museum’s Xiphactinus fossils come from Logan County, Kansas, which is home to 70-ft- (21.3 m-) tall sedimentary formations. Though that might not sound like an ideal home for an ocean-dweller, the entire area was covered by a vast inland sea during the Cretaceous.