NATURAL TREASURES

PALEOZOIC FOSSILS

(Click on Image for Enlargement)

FOSSIL FERN IN SHALE

FFS6    FFS7    FFS8  

When I think of the Carboniferous Period I imagine the "coal swamps", warm wet marshes filled with lush ferns and lycopods and accumulating plant debris, later to form coal.  Lounging about were amphibians and buzzing around were large dragonflies.  The pseudofern show above, Alethopteris serlii, is from the Llewellyn Shale, St. Clair, Pennsylvania.  Its age is Pennsylvanian, which is a subdivision of the Carboniferous Period, 300 million years ago.

 ORTHOCERAS PLAQUES

 FORTHP1L, FORTHP2R       

These primitive members of the class Cephalopoda are similar to the modern Chambered Nautilus, but grew a straight shell rather than a coiled one.  Now extinct, the 365 million year old, Devonian age Orthoceras, meaning "straight horn", is an ancestor of the squid or octopus.  It had hollow chambers separated by walls called septa,  A tube, called the siphuncle, connected the body with the chambers allowing the animal to fill them with water or air, changing its buoyancy in order to rise or drop in the ocean.  These specimens are from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.  The matrix, a black marble, was chipped away from the fossil and left rough.  The fossil was then hand polished to accentuate its form.

PYRITIZED BRACHIOPODS

 FPBR1L, FPBR2R    

Occasionally, fossil shells are replaced, over time, by pyrite.  I have seen this phenomenon occur in ammonites, trilobites, and brachiopods such as shown here.  The brachiopods shown here, Paraspirifer bownockeri, are from the Silica Formation of Lucas County, Ohio.  They lived during the Devonian Period, 375 million years ago.  FPBR1L, shown on the left, has two brachs and there is a partial crinoid stem in the matrix.  FPBR2R, on the right, is a very nice, slightly larger single brach on matrix.

CRINOIDS

FCRND1   FCRND2

These unusual marine creatures are not extinct, but are uncommon today.  These crinoids, Scyphocrinus elegans, lived 415 million years ago, during the Late Silurian Period, in an ocean that, at the time, covered Morocco.  They are also called "sea lilies" and are related to starfish, sand dollars and sea urchins.

TRILOBITE "GEODE"

The nodule shown above was split open to reveal the 6 1/2" part and counterpart of this Cambrian Period age trilobite, Andalusiana cornuta lived 495 million years ago in the sea that is now Morocco.  It is an extinct ancestor of crabs and shrimp.

TRILOBITE- CAMBROPALACE

FCAMBR1

Cambropalace was a rather large trilobite that lived during the Cambrian Period, 495 million years ago, in the sea that is now Morocco.  It is an extinct ancestor of crabs and shrimp.   It was found in Djbel Ougrat, Morocco.

TRILOBITE- ANDALUSIANA CORNUTA

FANDLC1

The trilobite Andalusiana lived about the same time as Cambropalace, during the Cambrian Period, 495 million years ago.  It was found in Djbel Ougrat, Morocco.

TRILOBITE- PHACOPS RANA AFRICANUS

FPHA02                    FPHA03                             FPHA04

Trilobites first appeared, along with many other complex life forms, in the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era.  Trilobites are considered the first animal to have eyes.  Note the detailed eye of this trilobite.  It is composed of many individual eyes bundled together into one.  This is called an "aggregate eye".  These specimens, extinct ancestors of crabs and shrimp, lived 365 million years ago during the Devonian Period and were found in the Jebel Formation, Alnif, Morocco.

TRILOBITE- METACANTHINA BARRANDEI

FMETA03

This extinct marine arthropod is an ancestor of crabs and shrimp.  It inhabited an ocean that once covered what is now the Sahara Desert!  It lived in the Devonian Period, 365 million years ago and was found in the Hamar Laghdad Formation, Alnif, Morocco.

TRILOBITE- ELRATIA KINGII

FELRT3

This primitive arthropod is an ancestor of crabs and shrimp and was the first critter to have eyes.  It lived during the Cambrian Period in the ocean that once covered Antelope Springs, Millard County, Utah 

POLISHED AMMONITES, FROM MOROCCO

 FMAM1       FMAM2      FMAM3     FMAM4   

      FMAM5     FMAM6   FMAM7   FMAM8 

These two specimens of the ammonite genus Geisonoceras roamed the oceans some 365 million years ago during the Devonian Period.  They were found in the Atlas Mountains near Erfoud, Morocco.  The outer shell was polished away, revealing the chamber wall suture pattern.  Ammonites are the extinct ancestors of the Chambered Nautilus.

FOSSIL AMMONOIDS (GONIATITES), MOROCCO

   FAIM2                          FAIM3                      FAIM4

These ammonoids were contemporaries of the Geisonoceras above, about the same age and location.  Note the angular chamber walls.  They have been polished on both sides and are freestanding.

Home    Calendar    Eggs & Spheres    Favorite Links   Fetishes    Field Trip    Fossil Fish    Fossils    Heavenly Rocks     Kool Kids Stuff     Minerals, Crystals & Geodes     Unique Gifts     Navigation Tips      Order Form       Showroom