SQUARE BLACK ORTHOCERAS & AMMONITE FOSSIL DISH FROM MOROCCO - TRILOBITE AGE #7

You are bidding on this BEAUTIFUL AND REAL HAND-POLISHED FOSSIL MARBLE PLATE originally from ALNIF south east of MOROCCO dated from the Devonian period (350 to 395 million years ago).
 
 ! An amazing display... don't miss this item!
 
The size of the specimen is 8" by 8" by 1/2",
weight 2 lbs 10.0 oz.

Beware: Stand not included in auction!

This fossil marble has rare fossils called Orthoceras fossil (meaning "straight horn") were primitive types of nautiloids that looked like squid with a long, straight (or slightly curved), conical, chambered, and furrowed shell. The shell ranged from a few centimeters to over 9 feet long. The Orthoceras lived in the largest chamber in the shell. These invertebrates swam in shallow seas using jet-propulsion and breathed with gills. Orthoceras lived from the middle Ordovician Period to the Devonian Period, from about 470 to 360 million years ago.
 
Fossil marble has also rare and exotic fossils called Ammonite fossils. An Ammonite is a cephalopod which once swam in shallow marine seas and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago). The closest living relative to the ammonite is the chambered nautilus. Like the chambered nautilus, the ammonite's ability to swim was due to the unique construction of its shell. The shell contained many air filled chambers, called the phragmocone. The "walls" of each chamber, called septa, were penetrated by a tubelike structure called a siphuncle. It is believed that the air in the chambers was regulated through this "tube". The air in the chambers provided buoyancy, which allowed the ammonite to float. The ammonite lived in the last chamber, which ranged in size from a half of a whorl to one and a half whorls of the shell. The animal protruded out the end of its shell through the aperture.
 

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