Fish

One of nature’s success stories

Pholidophorus is the only fossil fish from the Purbeck Beds that is related to modern-day fish. Unlike all of the other fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which are armoured and cumbersome animals, Pholidophorus has a modern fish form. It also has different jaws, gill plates and thinner scales. Ancestors go back into the Lower Jurassic period, some 65 million years older than the Purbeck beds. This makes Pholidophorus one of nature’s success stories.