Show GIANT FISH YEARS OLD PRESERVED FOR SCIENCE belongs to group which has long since been extinct and la Is 12 feet in length akl y washington seven sevell or eight million years ngo ago or thereabouts when the present state of kansas was tin nn inland soa sea a giant fish turned cannibal and swallowed what might easily have been one of his own progeny head first fins tall and all in all probability however lie paid thep rico for hla his gluttony for lie he died immediately after today scientists ot of the national museum U under the direction of the smithsonian institution prepared hid hia fossilized skeleton inclosing that of hla his undigested last meal for exhibition at the sesquicentennial being held at philadelphia Is 19 the narae of tho the slant giant fish and of tile tho fish IL 11 swallowed and they belong to a group which has I 1 lone r ance alfrco beau be eu extinct the tarpon more laora nearly resembles this group than any other living species of flab but even it Is not considered to be very closely related tho present specimen measured about twelve feet from tip to tall and tarpons do not biot exceed liala that length the smaller fish which the 91 giant ant swallowed whole readied reached nearly six feet it Is this fact which mitch suggests that the giant might have died as the result of his gluttony the Im immediacy immella of death after eating cating IF ie indicated of course by tho the nl al most andl undigested asted state of the skeleton of the smaller fish inside the giant sank at once to the bottom where through long centuries his bones were covered cohered co vered with the remains of minute sen organisms forming chalk other layers of shale forming mud followed VOW the chalk and on top of these sand cand was deposited until the skeleton was burled under feet of rock form ing material in course of geological geologic til processes the sen sea bottom was raised the sea e disappeared erosion carried away most of the superimposed layers and the mill skeleton was finally uncovered by a modern scientist mr george F sternberg du dug up the fossil fish in the Nio niobrara brara cretaceous chalk of western kansas the period when the chalk was formed corresponded with ill tha earlier part of epochs which clofed tile the so called reptilian era aher the giant dinosaurs reigned supreme su on land |