Fossil Friday: private collector wanted a dinosaur skull, but got a huge, fossilized bony fish lung Haven't we all fallen for this at one point in our lives? Reset Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have run into the fossilized remains of an ancient bony fish — the coelacanth — out of sheer luck. Or bad luck, depending on who you’re asking. The original slab as purchased. The coelacanth ossified lung in close proximity to a series of associated, but disarticulated wing elements of a large, but indeterminate pterosaur. Image credits University of Portsmouth. In a break from our traditional story path for Fossil Friday, there won’t be much talk about anything being ‘unearthed’ today. That’s because the fossil in question is part of a private collection from a London aficionado. It was identified as having belonged to a species of coelacanth by Professor David Martill, a paleontologist from the University’s School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, after he was asked to take a look at the specimen and determine its origin.