Spectacular graptolite with extraordinary preservation!!! - Fossilised animal - Araneograptus murrayi (Hall, 1865) - Dictyonema venustrum (Lapworth, 1881) - 33 cm - 29 cm

Spectacular slab with numerous specimens of the graptolite Araneograptus murrayi and at least two specimens of Dictyonema venustrum. Large-sized slab, extremely rare specimens of this size. Preparing the specimen was very laborious, preserving the finest details. The contrast between the fossils and the matrix is spectacular. The extraordinary preservation of the fossils allows for detailed observation of the delicate structures of the different graptolite colonies. A specimen worthy of a museum.

The largest El Araneograptus measures 100x80 mm.
The largest Dictyonema measures 55x20.

Plastic support included.

Graptolites are an extinct class of the Phylum Hemichordata. They are fossils of colonial animals that appeared at the end of the Cambrian and went extinct at the beginning of the Carboniferous. Graptolites are small animals that lived in groups or colonies. Some colonies formed branching shapes. The different types of graptolite colonies had branches with various shapes. They could be straight, curved, or even spiral.
The deposits of the Fezouata formation, near the Moroccan city of Zagora, are providing a rich and diverse record of fossils with extraordinary preservation, up to soft tissues or soft-bodied animals being recorded fairly frequently. This type of preservation is similar, although later in time, to that of the famous Burgess Shale site (Canada).

These are fossils dating from between 480 and 472 million years ago. At that time, Morocco was an ocean and was located over the South Pole.