Ancient Discovery Made At Bay View Park
Fossils of an extinct fish were discovered last week here in Alpena. The ancient discovery took place along the limestone break wall at Bay View Park. The remains were from more than 300 million years ago, during a time period called the Devonian period- also referred to as the age of fish.
Over 350 million years ago, Michigan was covered by a warm shallow tropical sea– causing the sea to team with both life and fish- and thus resulting in what was found here in our city.
“They’re preserved in the stones here on this breakwater so one of the fossils is here you can see it exposed,” pointed out matt Fieldman, University of Michigan Paleontologist. “It’s a plate of a kind of extinct fish called a Placoderm which is an armored creature that lived many millions of years ago,” said Fieldman.
With the permission of the city of Alpena, the paleontologists were able to collect these rare fish fossil specimens to conduct research at the University of Michigan.
However the excavation process wasn’t a simple one. The fossils will be taken to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology for more research. Once the research is complete they will be added to the existing fossil exhibit at Besser Museum.
