Lot 102A
Morocco, Devonian Period, ca. 400 million years ago. A enormous fossilized slab of the prehistoric shale sea bed covered in crinoids, also known as sea lilies. Crinoids are animals that live throughout the ocean; these are of the form that attached themselves to the sea floor using a long stalk or anchor, which you can see preserved in several of the examples here. In life, these crinoids had a mouth on their top surface surrounded by feeding arms, giving them a waving, moving effect even here, frozen in stone. Many species of crinoids continue to live today, but during the Silurian period, they were much more abundant - the Silurian saw an explosion of life in the sea, and these animals would have been vibrant parts of that newly diverse ecosystem, probably brightly colored if modern sea lilies are anything to go by. The level of preserved biological detail on this fossil is incredible. This fossil came from the area that today spans the coast between Casablanca and Rabat, through the high Atlas Mountains, to the border with Algeria. During the Silurian, parts of the western Sahara were under the ocean; today, the ocean floor has become a black shale that, when exposed as rock, weathers to bright colors - here the underlying rock is a deep purple red. Size: 62" W x 42" H (157.5 cm x 106.7 cm)
Provenance: Purchased from an estate sale in Simi Valley, CA, Via an antique dealer.
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#118602
- Condition: A cut slab with excellent stabilized preservation to the fossil surface. The backing is fiberglass with two horizontal iron bars.
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