Orthoceras Bookends

350 million years ago these extinct relatives of the chambered nautilus flourished in a warm, shallow sea which covered what is now the Sahara Desert. As the shells of these creatures accumulated on the sea floor they were buried by sediment and, over the ages, transformed into stone by physical and chemical processes. Today, this stone is quarried and polished by Moroccan craftsmen to reveal a rare glimpse of ancient life on Earth.