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Product Description
Belemnites are extinct, squid-like straight-shell Cephalopods that died out at the end of the Cretaceous Period, along with ammonites and dinosaurs. The belemnite fossils offered here were darting about below the ocean waves at the same time many incredible large prehistoric marine reptiles like PLESIOSAURS and MOSASAURS chased them about. It was the same time many of the most ferocious dinosaurs walked the Earth and largest pterodactyls soared in the skies above.
While much more common to find damaged and embedded rock or sliced in rock tiles, this is a set of complete belemnites preserved in three-dimensional natural form, of solid translucent honey-colored calcite! THEY WERE THE LARGEST OF ALL WE FOUND, and were all collected from the same site and are belemnites of the species Gonioteuthis quadrata sp., freed from the rock in which they were found. Finding an undamaged one and then KEEPING IT UNDAMAGED as you remove it from the hard limestone, is a real chore and very difficult to accomplish! Literally, MORE than a ton of rock has to be turned and broken by hand to find this many complete belemnites from this Cretaceous site. After we collected these, we then subjected each one to individual microscopic cleaning in our lab. Every belemnite we have ever encountered for sale had been ground and polished on a grinding machine to remove the rock but doing so, removes all this incredible natural surface detail. NONE of these specimens have touched a grinding wheel! Each individual belemnite was cleaned with micro-abrasive in our lab. The investment of time to first, find them, break the rock and remove them, then clean each one in the lab, far exceeds the price we are asking.
If you want pristine preserved belemnites free from their rock and in the most natural state, this is a fantastic display collection. Most will glow when held up in the light because they are pure calcite. Each belemnite has NO POLISHING, GRINDING, REPAIR OR RESTORATION.
If you appreciate fossil specimens of a nature that are rarely seen on the market, then this set should appeal to you. These are so unusual and beautiful with their ORIGINAL INTACT ANATOMY that they would also make incredible centerpieces for exotic custom jewelry designs. The site where this fossil was collected is unique with no commercial fossil production. This is a exquisitely preserved and excellent display specimen set of these once-prolific creatures of the ancient seas.
