Syngnathus avus
Fish
Middle Miocene
Monterey Formation
Santa Maria, California, USA

97mm pipefish on 116mm slab.

Syngnathus is a genus of pipefish known as a fossil only from Miocene to Pleistocene sites across Europe and a few Miocene sites in California. S. avus was described just over 100 years ago based on specimens found in the Los Angeles Basin. When the flow of fossils out of Italy was halted years ago, the examples from California became the only game in town if you needed one for your collection.

Pipefishes live today in tropical to temperate waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and belong to the same family, Syngnathidae, as seahorses.