| A "bulbous fish growth" from the Upper Pliocene Tulare Formation, near "The Zone" fossil locality, North Dome area, Kettleman Hills, California. This is a fossilized bony tumor that afflicted a fish that lived some three to two and a half million years ago in the estuaries bordering a great inland sea in what is now the Central Valley of California. Most of the fossil tumors are similar to observed types that attack the skeletons of modern weak-fish, cod (specifically the hakes), angel fishes and even catfish. No other fossil locality, save the Kettleman Hills, is known to yield these kinds of specimens. |