Stratum.black
Priscacara serrata — Priscacara serrata
Priscacara serrata — James St. John, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Fish

Priscacara serrata

Ancient sunfish

Priscacara serrata is the round, spiny-finned perch of Fossil Lake, prized for its bold fin spines and full scale pattern. Many smaller specimens sold as Priscacara are now Cockerellites liops, distinguished by size and fin-ray counts; the two are hard to separate on a commercial plate. Well-prepared Priscacara on dark 18-inch-layer matrix are among the most attractive Green River fish.

PhylumChordata
ClassActinopterygii
OrderPerciformes
FamilyMoronidae
GroupFish
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorCope 1877· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Chordata › Osteichthyes › Cichliformes › Priscacaridae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)72.2–37.7 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences5· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Priscacara serrata — Priscacara serrata Cope
Priscacara serrata Cope — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHPALEO), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0
Priscacara serrata — Priscacara serrata Cope
Priscacara serrata Cope — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHPALEO), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0
Priscacara serrata — Priscacara serrata Cope
Priscacara serrata Cope — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHPALEO), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Priscacara serrata" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/priscacara-serrata. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-priscacara-serrata,
  title        = {Priscacara serrata},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/priscacara-serrata}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, smithsonian. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.