Fossils

The word Fossil comes from the Latin word fossilis, which is translated to ‘obtained by digging’. There are many forms of fossils, all sorts of creatures and plant life dated back millions of years ago. Some of the ones we love are mentioned below. Ammonites, an extinct group of marine life that are closely related to the Coleoidea (soft-bodied sea creatures), such as squids and cuttlefish. They are prized not only for their aesthetic, a typical spiral shell formation which is often beautifully polished, but scientific value as well. Trilobites, meaning ‘three lobes’, which is due to their bodies having three longitudinal lobes, the head, body and tail. They are from the group Arthropod, all of which have exoskeletons and became extinct shortly after dinosaurs, dating back as far as 250 million years ago. Orthoceras, translated to ‘long horn’ is from the group Cephalopod ‘head-feet’. An exclusively marine animal with a prominent head and a set of arms or tentacles. The fossils show off an elongated shell which is often in limestone. Shark teeth, many different species of sharks teeth come from Morocco. The most popular being from the Carcharocles chubutensis, which are large averaging to about the size of a medium-sized hand, and the Carcharocles Megalodon, these are sandy brown to white and a lot smaller in size. Both these varieties are direct ancestors of the Megalodon.