Fossils

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Shark's Teeth	Orthoceras	Trilobites	Ammonites	Fossiled Poo

Devil's Toenail

You can buy these fossils in our Online Shop

Fossil Shark Teeth

Species: Otodus obliquus How old are they? 60 – 50 million years (Eocene)


What are they? These fossilised teeth are from a large species of meat-eating shark called otodus obliquus.
It was related to the Great White shark of today but was three times longer (about 12 metres long – or 15 kids’ bicycles).

Where are they found? Amazingly these teeth were found near the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. They were found at a height of almost 2,000 metres above sea level and hundreds of miles from the coast.
From the observation of modern-day sharks, we know that they cannot live on the land! So how did these teeth get here? Before becoming a mountainous region, the area where the shark teeth were found must have been under the sea once.	We know that sharks do not live on land
Myths and Legends On the Island of Malta you can find fossil shark teeth. They were historically called ‘tongue stones’ because people thought they were the tongues of snakes.
In about 60 AD St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta on his way to Rome. (public holiday). He came ashore unharmed but was bitten by a poisonous snake that leapt from a fire. Amazingly he was not poisoned. People made a connection between this and the tongue stones (fossil shark teeth). They believed the tongue stone possessed supernatural powers.
This belief developed further through time. In the Middle-Ages, people thought that tongue stones could neutralise any poison when dunked into a drink before drinking it. *Do you think it worked?* Today, some people still wear a shark tooth pendant to bring good luck or health.
In Malta, the shipwreck of St. Paul is marked by a public holiday - 10th of February.	Fossil shark teeth - once believed to neutralise poison

Orthoceras

Species: Orthoceras How old are they? 420– 355 million years (Devonian)

What are they?
Orthoceras is s species of extinct sea creatures that belonged to a group known as the orthocone nautiloides.

They are the ancestors of ammonites and squids.

They had straight rather than coiled shells.

Where are they found?

Orthoceras fossils are abundant in South East Morocco where they are very well preserved in black limestone.

Fossils of orthocone nautiloids can also be found in many other places.

Key facts

Orthoceras was a marine creature that probably hunted the first fish that were evolving in the Devonian period (420-355 million years ago).

The first submarines?

The hollow shell was divided into chambers. Orthoceras could fill the chambers with gas to control their depth in the water.

Orthoceras could adjust their depth in water just like a submarine

	In this photo you can see the internal structure of orthoceras very clearly. The shell of is made of separate hollow chambers. It had a central tube called a siphuncle that connected chambers. It used the siphuncle to fill the chambers with gas to move up and down in the water depths.
Cross-section of an orthoceras

	The orthocone nautiloid fossils from Morocco are approximately 400 million years old. They have been around for a long time. During that time they can be altered by movements in the Earth. In the photo to the left you can see how a small fault has cut through the orthoceras fossil.
Orthoceras cut by a micro fault

Look! - No fins
Unlike fishes, orthocone nautiloids and ammonites did not use fins for swimming. Instead they pumped water like a kind of jet propulsion.
This method is still used by creatures like cuttlefish and squid today.

Orthoceras pumped water through its body to move in the water

Trilobites

Species:Calymene Flexi How old are they? 440-420 million years ()

What are they?
Trilobites belonged to the group of animals known as arthropods.
They were related to modern day spiders, insects and crabs.

Trilobites had a segmented external skeleton called an exoskeleton.

They would have curled up like a woodlouse for protection against predators.

Where are they found?
The specimens in the Junior Geo Rock Shop were found in the Western Sahara desert of Morocco.

Key facts
Trilobites swam freely using many jointed legs and were widespread in the ancient oceans before a breathable atmosphere had developed.

Trilobites were one of the first hard-shelled creatures to be preserved as fossils.

Trilobites lived in our oceans for 350 million years between the Cambrian and the Permian Periods. By studying trilobites and they way they lived we can learn a great deal about what the Earth was like a long time ago.
That is a very long time when you compare it with mankind who has only been on the Earth for about 1 million years.

As an individual trilobite grew, it would regularly shed its exoskeleton.
This is often what remains as a trilobite fossil. It also means that a single animal may have made many fossils during its lifetime.

There were many different species of trilobite. This has helped geologists date the rocks where trilobites are found.

Trilobites were amongst the first creatures with eyes. They were simple compound eyes (like an insect) and were made of calcite.
Click the image to the right to see the world through the eyes of a trilobite.

Trilobites were the first group of animals to have
good eyes to see where they were going.

Ammonites

Species: Various How old are they? 120-65 million years (Jurassic - Cretaceous)

What are they?
Ammonites are a group of extinct fast-swimming sea creatures.

They were related to our modern day cuttlefish, squid, nautilus and octopus.

With many tentacles and well developed eyes ammonites preyed on fish and crustaceans.

Their large eyes probably helped them to hunt at night or in deep water where there is little daylight.

Ammonites grew coiled shells around their soft body for protection. The creature lived in the newest shell chamber. The other chambers were hollow and this allowed them to float in the water.

Where are they found?

Ammonites are found as fossils in rocks that were deposited in the ocean from all over the world.

The Ammonites in Junior Geo's Rock Shop and online shop come from Madagascar.

Below are some of the different species of ammonites that you will find in Junior Geo's Rock Shops.


Perisphinctes	Nautilus

Phylloceras	Cleoniceras

Desmoceras	Douvilliceras

The largest ammonite fossil ever found was nearly 3 metres across!

Ammonites became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago.

Most people believed their extinciton was caused by a meteorite that crashed into the Earth near Mexico killing most of the life on Earth - including the dinosaurs.

Have you ever wondered what life might be like if the meteorite had missed out planet...?

...Perhaps the dinosaurs and ammonites might still be around today!

Myths and Legends

Ammon - the God
Ammonites are named after the Egyptian god called Ammon.

The whorled structure of ammonite shells resemble “The Horns of Ammon” who was represented as having the horns of a ram on his head.

The "Horns" of Ammon

Ammonites at Whitby
People used to believe that ammonites were headless snakes coiled around their tails.

This gave rise to the name " snakestone" for ammonite fossils.

There is a story about an Anglo-Saxon Abbess called St. Hilda who lived between 614 and 680 AD.

She planned to build a monestary near the town of Whitby in Yorkshire.

The propsed site on top of a cliff was believed to be cursed and overrun by snakes.

St. Hilda is said to have cut off the heads of the snakes and thrown them over the cliffs.

Perhaps this is where the fossil ammonites to be found at Whitby came from?

St. Hilda cutting off the heads of snakes at Whitby

An explanation about St. Hilda's association with ammonites is given in a 17th Century book called 'Lives of women Saintes of our Countrie of England'.

'In that monasterie of Whitbye, there were such aboundance of serpents, what throughe the thicknes of bushes, and the wildernesse of the woods, that the virgins durst not peepe out of their Cells, or goe to draw water: but by her prayers she obtayned of god, that they might be tourned into stones; yet so as the shape of serpents still remayned; which to this day, the stones of that place do declare, as eye-witnesses haue testified.'

The college arms for St Hilda's College at Oxford University still bears the symbol of the ammonite.

Crampstones:

Some people in the Scottish Isles used to believe that ammonites were a good cure for cramp in cattle.

The affected area was washed with special water that had been soaked with ammonites for several hours.

Cure cramp in cattle - soak ammonites in water

Ammonite fossils or Salagramas as they are known play an important part in Hindu culture.
They are kept in temples and households.

Fossilised Poo (Coprolite)

Species: unkown How old are they? 2-3 million years


What are they? These are the preserved droppings of animals. They are known as a trace fossil which means they are not a fossil of the creature itself. Instead they record the activity of creatures. It is very difficult to relate a fossilised poo to the creature that produced it. Foot prints and burrows are also examples of trace fossils.
Coprolites do not smell - but everyone who picks one up always gives it a good sniff! During the fossilisation process the original material becomes replaced with minerals.
Where are they found? Coprolites can be found in any sedimentary rock where preservation conditions are right. The coprolites in our online store come from Madagascar. And they are believed to have come from crocodiles and turtles.

Why are we interested in fossilied poo? Well, coprolites can provide us with a lot of useful information that helps us build up a picture of what the earth was like when the coprolite was produced. For example coprolites may contain plant material and this can help us to learn what kind of plants were growing. They may also contain the remains of other creatures so we can discover which other creatures were around at the same time.