Orthoceras fossil in marble, devonian period, morocco

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Specimen: Orthoceras

Age: Devonian

Location: Morocco

Size (picture scale cube=1cm):   27 x 9 x 44mm (1.06 x 0.35 x 1.73 inches)

Orthoceras, meaning “Straight Horn”, was a mollusc that lived more than 400 million years ago. Its name refers to the characteristic long, straight, conical shell these marine animals possessed. The soft body lived in the last open-ended segment at the large end of the conical shell, the preserved fossilised shell is all that remains of this ancestor of our modern-day squid. As the body grew and the housing segment became too small, a dividing wall, called the septa, grew to separate the old “home chamber” from the new one. The siphuncle is a tube that runs the entire length of the shell, through each of the chambers. Once filled with water, the nautiloid could force the water out, propelling itself backward with a kind of jet propulsion, which would have served as a quick retreat if feeling threatened. By releasing the water and leaving air in the space, the tube could serve as a buoyancy device allowing the animal to rise and lower itself to different depths.

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