Product Description
If you are looking for an unforgettable house-warming or unique gift that won't get "re-gifted", this is a fantastic option! It is a hand-made stone bowl crafted out of a solid block of what was once the bottom of a 450 million prehistoric ocean floor. It is filled with natural fossils on all sides including the bottom! Featured are fossils of orthoceras, a type of prehistoric squid that lived before any living creature walked the Earth! The color and fossils are completely natural and well-detailed. As these forms of prehistoric squid were covered in ocean sediments prior to fossilization, the majority of the creatures will be facing in the same relative position having been lined up by currents on the sea floor prior to being buried.
SPECIAL NOTE: THIS IS FOR A 10 INCH DIAMETER BOWL - MANY LOOK SIMILAR BUT LESSER PRICED ONES ARE SMALLER.
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HISTORY
Prehistoric 'straight' cephalopods include straight ammonoids called ORTHOCERAS. Cephalopod evolution began during the Late Cambrian Period. Cephalopod bodies were predominantly elongate with conical shells. Some of these creatures evolved into semi-coiled forms eventually giving rise to coiled cephalopods like ammonites and nautilii-.
Straight cephalopods were among the most advanced invertebrates of their time having eyes, jaws, and a sophisticated nervous system. These creatures were predators that swam freely using a jet propulsion system by squirting water from their bodies. They had tentacles and ink sacs also much like the present-day squid. Except for belemnites, cephalopods had external shells with hollow internal 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. Only the last and largest chamber was occupied by the living animal. Belemnites were different in that they had internal shells called 'guards' which were covered with the soft, muscular tissues of their bodies. These shells were also chambered but much less complex than the straight varieties of nautiloids and ammonoids.