Tucson Trip - Part II / Fossils

 

More of our inventory purchases from Tucson 2013. 

These are just some of the many different fossils we purchased from around the globe...Madagascar & Morocco.

Visit our Facebook Page *Timeless Designs Studio* to see more fossils and minerals available to prucahse!

 

Raw ammonite fossils from Madagascar

 

Large orthocears fossils from Morocco

Natilus ammonites from Madagascar

Trilobite geodge from Morocco

 

Trilobite Slabs from Morocco

Trilobite Fossils

Trilobite or Proteus Granulosus are similar to the horseshoe crab, Trilobites – meaning 3 lobes – lived from 550 to 200 million years ago in the Cambrian, Paleozonic, and Devonian seas.





There are hundreds of species of Trilobites, but they are most closely related to the chelicerates, which include the horseshoe crabs and spiders.

They are now all extinct, but their fossil remains are found in many places in the U.S and worldwide. Some, in the Canadian Rockies, have been found as large as 2 ½ feet in length. 







Visit Timeless Designs shop to browse and shop for fossils, minerals, rocks, and more!

All Fossil of Morocco

These Moroccan fossils were a find in Tucson this year; I did a little price bartering in purchasing them, which was a lot of fun! They are all high quality fossils; the mixed freestanding statue of Ammonites/Orthoceras fossils are highly polished on the front with a matte finished on the backside. Each of these shows a lot of details on and around the fossils; the black/white statue has several smaller pieces of orthoceras fossils among the larger fossils, which is hard to come by. The single standing statue of orthoceras have multiple fossils and are smaller, but I was also able to barter for a really tall (and heavy) larger statue containing many of these fossils.

During my trip I was able to get quite a bit of Trilobite fossils and to get these high quality real fossils is very pricy. I am excited to bring these and several more in different sizes to my customers (per their request!) this year. The best find was the large plate with 2 large individual trilobites in very good condition and showing much detail, this was quite a find and I was excited to get this new treasure!

Here's a little about each of these fossils....some of them will be listed in the coming weeks on our website for sale and others will be available at our Spring shows in the next few months. Something new this year, I was able to find some really nice metal stands for r the fossils and minerals that are not free-standing. They are pictured here with a few of the fossils and will be available as part of the purchase with the fossil or mineral.

Ammonites (pictured mixed with orthoceras fossils; top left & bottom left) are an extinct subclass of cephalopods, whose present-day descendants include the octopus, squid and nautilus. Ammonites lived from approximately 400 to 65 million years ago (late Cretaceous). Their well-preserved fossilized shells are found today, and are often cut and polished.

Orthoceras fossils (pictured top right) are squid fossils that lived in shells, an ancient mollusk whose fossil shells are found and polished in the Sahara Desert of Morocco. In the Devonian geologic period, some 350 million years ago, these ocean dwellers, reaching a length of up to 6 feet, swam in an ocean which covered the area. After death, their shells weer preserved in the black marble where they are found today. They moved by ejecting water through an opening and by moving their tentacles. The tentacles caught food while their parrot-shaped beaks cut the food up.

Trilobite (pictured middle & bottom right) or Proteus Granulosus are similar to the horseshoe crab, Trilobites – meaning 3 lobes – lived from 550 to 200 million years ago in the Cambrian, Paleozonic, and Devonian seas. There are hundreds of species of Trilobites, but they are most closely related to the chelicerates, which include the horseshoe crabs and spiders. They are now all extinct, but their fossil remains are found in many places in the U.S and worldwide. Some, in the Canadian Rockies, have been found as large as 2 ½ feet in length. 

Trilobite Fossils

Phacops rana (Trilobite) is a fossil organism known as a Trilobite (pronounced “tri-lobe-ite”). Trilobites are an extinct category of jointed-legged animals related to crabs, lobsters, shrimp, spiders, and insects. This group of creatures, called arthropods, are among the most complex of all the animals without backbones and trilobites are no exception. They had well-developed nervous systems and large antennae. Trilobites had many appendages for swimming, walking, or feeding. Although these appendages are relatively rare in most groups of trilobite fossils. Phacops is one of four genera for which they are fairly well known and studied. Trilobites also had a hard outer skeleton composed of chitin, a complex organic protein, and the mineral apatite.

Trilobites are a common fossil in many of the early to middle Paleozoic rocks of central Pennsylvania, i.e., rocks that are between 570 and 365 million years old. Complete fossil specimens are rare because the animals were composed of rigid outer skeletal segments joined by flexible organic connections that decayed on the death of the animal. An interest in trilobites is not restricted to scientists and geological dilettantes. They are prized by lapidarist and jewelry and curio collectors. This interest is a long-standing one. Trilobites were found on necklaces belonging to the prehistoric inhabitants of 15,000 year old rock shelters of Europe. The Ute Indians of the western United States fashioned trilobites into amulets. The Ute name for these fossils was, “timpe khanitza pachavee” which means “little water but like stone house in.”

*Information provided by the resident family gemologist.