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Product Description
If you are looking for some unforgettable house-warming or unique gifts that won't get "re-gifted", this is a fantastic option! This is a set of FOUR pieces of hand-made fossil stoneware. There are two heart-shaped fossil dishes made of Goniatite (a type of extinct ammonite) and Orthoceras fossil stone. There is also a large Orthoceras boat-shaped dish, as well as a beautiful Orthoceras vase, lathe-turned and carved from a solid block of fossil stone.
Each of these unique handcrafts were made out of a solid block of what was once the bottom of a 450 million prehistoric ocean floor. They are filled with natural fossils on all sides including the bottom! Featured are fossils of Ammonites and Orthoceras, extinct types of ancient cephalopods that once lived in the ocean 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.
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HISTORY
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.
Ammonites are extinct invertebrates that shared the same fate as the dinosaurs, going extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago. Modern relatives of ammonites include the nautilus, squid, cuttlefish and octopus. Because ammonites lived exclusively in marine environments, their presence also indicates the location of prehistoric seas. Ammonites varied greatly in size. The largest known ammonites have been found in Europe and grew to massive sizes exceeding 2 meters (6.5 feet) across. This is the exception, of course. Average diameters throughout the ages showed that most ammonites grew to sizes not much larger than a man's hand. Some ammonites were only as large as 2 cm (0.75 inches) in diameter.