The richest recorded sample of fish otoliths, most of which are pelican gastroliths, was collected at the shoreline of a "mudlump" island in the lower Mississippi delta. It is dominated by gravel-size ear stones of sea catfish, common croakers, and sea trout, with abundant sand-size ear stones of a tropical gadoid. The remainder of the approximately 6,400 otoliths make up a rich, polyenvironmental assemblage ranging from fresh-water catfishes and killifishes to conger eels and deep-sea brotulids of anomalous origin.

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