Jump to content

Orthoceras too long and tall to be real?


Planodave

Recommended Posts

Hello all,

I love reading the posts here and the knowledge base is amazing.  Question, I came across these two specimens today and they seem really long "tall" and too perfectly straight to be real.  They must be at least 4 foot tall.  I have enclosed pictures and a close-up of a small section that is broken. 

Thank you all for the help.

D  

fossil.jpg

fossil2.jpg

fossil3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion this is a sculpted “orthoceras” made from the polished matrix and likely contains some real specimens within it. 
 

Probably just some trickery done to make this a more attractive specimen and command a higher price. 
 

Typically all the Moroccan polished orthoceras will have white outlines with chambers easily visible which I am not seeing here.

  • I Agree 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

nicely done, longest one I have seen was more than 220 cm, incredible work... The morocceans are often great artists :JC_doubleup:

I do not know the maximum size of a not composited one, think it ends at approx. 1 Meter

 

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 I use to sell lots of these back in the 1990's.  Heck, I think I've still got one of these somewhere.  These are made up of pieces of the real thing but of many different animals,  then all are ground/carved to make them appear to be all the same critter and then polished,  then the 'matrix' carved to hide all the 'jointery'. 

 

RB

  • I found this Informative 1
  • Enjoyed 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • digit changed the title to Orthoceras too long and tall to be real?

Fantastic artwork and trickery meant to entrap the uninformed and unwary and separate them from their funds. ;)

 

Reminds me of those composited megalodon teeth the size of dinner plates. :o

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think that these are real, they're composites, as has been mentioned, but there are huge ones about in Morocco.

Body size of orthoconic cephalopods from the late Silurian and Devonian of  the Anti‐Atlas (Morocco) - Pohle - 2018 - Lethaia - Wiley Online Library

Fig. 10. Approximate reconstruction of orthocones and size comparison. Note that ‘real’ animals differed in having constricted body chambers and also the adapical end was not as sharply pointed as illustrated here. A, Orthoceratoidea indet., late Ludfordian, Jebel Ouaoufilal. Note the big apical angle. B, PIMUZ 32183 – Temperoceras sp., late Lochkovian, Jebel Ouaoufilal. C, Deiroceras hollardi, early Emsian, Gara Mdouara. D, PIMUZ 31922 – D. hollardi, early Emsian, Gara Mdouara. E, PIMUZ 31502 – D. hollardi, early Emsian, Jebel Ouaoufilal. F, gen. et sp. indet., early Eifelian, Jebel Ouaoufilal. Note the very small adapical angle. G, hypothetical ‘average’ specimen.

 

Finding big chunks is common enough, but the 'complete' specimens are usually fractured in many places and break up when cutting free the matrix. 

Chunk I found.

 Deiroceras.thumb.jpg.3971f77e4c85a4e175d4dadcb09deb4c.jpg

Deiroceras3.thumb.jpg.b33c1dd14e2301497e8db87f3df1a4e3.jpg

Probably Deiroceras hollardi.

  • I found this Informative 3

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...