Large Oval Fossil Coffee Table

This beautiful fossiliferous coffee table was carved out of ancient Devonian limestone seafloor from the Sahara Desert. It presents an array of ancient Devonian marine life, exhibites a mixture of earth-tones, and is polished to a glassine finish to bring out both the colors and details of the fossils. Ground water minerals that percolated into the strata during diagenesis determined the color. The animals imbedded in the matrix are mostly Devonian Cephalopods, specifically goniatites and orthoceras.

Goniatites are ammonoids with a distinctive goniotitic zig-zag pattern in the sutures that mark the spiraling growth of the shell. The extinct ammonite that decended from Nautiloids is an example of the remarkable symmetry often found in nature. Mineral exchange over the eons can create an amazing array of contrasting color. Ammonites were Cephalopods sharing a common ancestor with the squid and octopus. The ammonites that appeared in the Devonian became very diverse and widespread in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic before going extinct along with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. The goniatites lived early in the Devonian period, some 400 million years ago, and became extinct during the Permian period.

Orthoceras (meaning straight horn) are a form of extinct nautiloids that appeared in the Silurian that is an ancestor to the modern day squid. Ranging in size from a few inches to over six feet long, they could either swim or crawl the ocean floor.