Orthoceras - Fossilised animal (No reserve price)

Beautiful display plate with several Orthoceras specimens from Morocco. These marine animals were among the first living forms to inhabit the planet. Discovery from the Arfoud area. Orthoceras are extinct cephalopod mollusks, belonging to a group that has vanished. These marine creatures lived in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago, mainly during the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian periods. Their name, from Greek meaning “straight horn,” refers to the distinctive conical, elongated shape of their 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 modern mollusks. Over time, under geological processes such as sedimentation and mineralization, these shells fossilized, giving rise to the specimens we admire today. Orthoceras fossils are valuable 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.