Orthoceras Stone Fossil

Orthoceras fossil palm stones and stone boxes. Two products in this collection.

What an orthoceras actually is

This is the one collection on the site where the object is not a crystal at all. Orthoceras were cephalopods — relatives of the modern squid and nautilus — that lived in straight, cone-shaped shells and swam the oceans of the Ordovician and Silurian periods, roughly 400 to 480 million years ago. The pale elongated cone you can see in each piece is the animal's chambered shell, preserved in cross-section. The regular divisions along it are the chambers it used for buoyancy, the same way a nautilus does today.

Almost all the material on the market comes from black limestone beds in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where these animals died in such numbers that the rock is dense with them. The slabs are cut and polished so the cross-section shows.

These are real fossils. The polishing is real and the fossil is real; on some Moroccan material the darker matrix around the fossil is enhanced, which is standard for the trade.

Care

Limestone is soft and reacts to acid — keep these away from vinegar, citrus, and acidic cleaning products, which will etch the polish permanently. Wipe with a soft dry cloth, not a wet one. Keep them out of prolonged direct sun.

What this is, and what it isn't

These are genuine fossil cephalopods polished into limestone. Crystals and fossils have a long place in tradition and in ritual practice, and that is the spirit in which we sell them. There is no peer-reviewed evidence that any stone or fossil treats, cures or prevents a medical condition, changes your finances, or alters the physical energy of a room. Nothing on this page is medical, psychological or financial advice.