Orthoceras - Fossilised animal (No reserve price)

Beautiful plate with several specimens of Orthoceras from Morocco. These marine animals were among the first living forms to inhabit the planet. Discovery in the Arfoud area.

Orthoceras are extinct cephalopod mollusks, belonging to a group now extinct. These marine creatures lived in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago, mainly during the Ordovician and Silurian and Devonian periods. Their name, which in Greek means “straight horn,” refers to the distinctive shape of their elongated conical shell. This shell was divided into chambers, separated by septa, and traversed by a siphon.

The shell of Orthoceras is probably their most distinctive feature. It was made of aragonite, a mineral that also forms the shells of many current mollusks. Over time, 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 understand the major changes that have shaped Earth’s history.