4.5" Polished Orthoceras Bookends - Morocco

This is a pair of gorgeous bookends made from 400 million year old fossiliferous rock. An area where the larger Orthoceras fossil is located has been polished so that its chambered structure can easily be seen. One of the bookends is .1" wider than the other.

Orthoceras is an extinct "straight" cephalopod that lived during the Devonian period nearly 400 million years ago. Like other cephalopods they lived inside of their shell, had tentacles they could use to grab food and used jet propulsion, squirting water to move. Rock containing their abundant fossils is mined near Erfoud, Morocco and is commonly shaped and polished into decorative pieces.