Nautiloid

The Science

Like their modern relative the chambered nautilus, Nautiloids had a soft body with tentacles that emerged from a hollow shell filled with gas for buoyancy. Unlike the Nautilus, which is admired for the beauty of its spiral shell, the Nautiloid shell came in a variety of shapes. Orthoceras (which translates as “straight horn”) Nautiloids had long, cone shaped shells, and must have swum like torpedoes through ancient seas.  These distinctive black and white specimens come from Morocco, and are often quarried in slabs teeming with fossil Orthoceras shells. The originally hollow chambers of the shell have filled in with white calcite crystals, and in some pieces the siphuncle, a tube that ran through all the chambers of the shell, is visible.

The Story

Their fossilized shells are common and are used as decorative stone all over the world. Individual shapes and fossils vary but your item will resemble the pictured example.

Please contact 212 343 7270 for additional sizes.

DETAILS

SKU: FO-SL0004
Dimensions:5-6.5"L x 1.5-2"W x 0.5"H
Scientific Name:Orthoceras
Origin: Sahara Morocco
Period: Ordovician
Age: 465 Million Years Old
Shipping Restrictions: None.