Orthoceras - Fossilised animal - 25 cm - 25 cm (No reserve price)

Beautiful slab featuring several Orthoceras specimens from Morocco. These marine animals were among the first living forms to inhabit the planet. Discovered in the northwestern Sahara.
Orthoceras were extinct cephalopod mollusks, belonging to a group now extinct. These marine creatures lived in the oceans several hundred million years ago, mainly during the Ordovician and Silurian periods. Their name, which in Greek means “straight horn,” refers to the distinctive shape of their conical, elongated shell. This shell was divided into chambers, separated by septa, and traversed by a siphon.
The Orthoceras shell is probably their most distinctive feature. It was made of aragonite, a mineral that also forms the shells of many current mollusks. Over time, and under the influence of geological processes such as sedimentation and mineralization, these shells fossilized, giving rise to the specimens we admire today.
Orthoceras fossils are precious witnesses to marine life of a bygone era. Their study allows scientists to reconstruct ancient ecosystems, understand the evolution of species, and better comprehend the major changes that have shaped Earth's history.