“Old recent”

This is how the Paleocene Epoch is sometimes described. Happening 65 million years ago, which should feel kind of soon? There was a mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, dinosaur time, which left some niches to fill in the ecosystem. I bring this up because I nerd. And I have been doing my research. As far as I can tell, these specimens of fish fossils are from the Paleocene. From the size of the scales, however, I think they could have become part of the fossil record during the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. Am I a paleontologist? No. Is this material wicked cool? Yes.

There is something about these old things that feels important and powerful. Like dragon eggs, they could hatch something incredible.