Syngnathus avus
Fish
Middle Miocene
Monterey Formation
Solvang, California, USA

130mm pipefish on 150mm slab.

Syngnathus is a genus of pipefish that dates back to the Oligocene and it is known from relatively few localities in Europe and California. S. avus was described just over 100 years ago based on specimens found in the Los Angeles Basin. The pipefish we have come from a locality about 100 miles north of there. When the flow of fossils out of Italy was halted years ago, the examples from California became the only game in town if you wanted to buy one.

Today, pipefishes frequent tropical to temperate waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and belong to the same family, Syngnathidae, as seahorses.

Good specimen for the collector looking for an example of an unusual fish that isn’t too pricey. Nice skull.