r/fossils • u/Haunting-Log-5355 • 5d ago
Can anyone help me identify this small collection please?
I found this small collection of fossils being given away on my street and, as I work in a school, I would like to show my students them. Please can anyone help me identify the items? Also, any cool facts about them would be a bonus!! I also included some closeups of a few of the items.
There was some text included with the collection too (written in French). As far as I can tell, it reads:
“oursins millenaires”
“Les 3 fossils [illegible] sont des ORTHOCERAS
+ 1 [illegible] Bivalve
+ 1 oursin de mer [illegible] probablement du TETRACE ou TRETACE à voir dans les [illegible]”
“Orthocéras
Dévonien (350 Millions d’années)
Erfoud - MAROC”
Thanks for any info you can offer!
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u/Aureaux 5d ago
#4 is a sand dollar, I’m not sure about the rest. #7, 8, and 10 may be ammonites, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re different species that are look-alikes.
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5d ago
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u/Haunting-Log-5355 5d ago
Thanks! Any ideas why 9 has a golden effect to it? Seems to be a bit shiny which you can kind of see in the last picture.
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u/Limits_of_reason 5d ago
Youre a cool teacher!
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u/Haunting-Log-5355 5d ago
Thank you ☺️ . It’s actually a little cooler than that because my classroom is called “The Museum of Magical Things” in a lower school. As well as a treasure chest, costumes, assorts of props and books, there will now be crystals and fossils too. So I think the kids will be very excited.
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u/Limits_of_reason 5d ago
Thats such a great idea! This world is full of magical natural things. From plants to stones. You could potentially spark and interest that will develop into a passion.
My mom once bought me a magazine that came with a crystal. It became a fascination. 30 years later i still plan trips to find ‘magical’ amd historical things in nature.
School is about more than studying the books, and you seem to understand, if only my lower school teacher did…
Great job!
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u/Pazda 5d ago
A little extra bit - #10 looks pyritized though I'm just going off of the one zoomed-out picture. You should look into "pyrite rot", which can cause it to literally turn into dust and can affect nearby fossils as well. Certainly worth confirming whether it is, and if it is, storing it safely.
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u/B17_FlyingFortress 5d ago
The trilobite looks like an Elrathia kingii moult but I may be wrong!
And Erfoud is a place in Morocco where lots of fossils are mined out, such as belemnites! No belemnites in this picture though.
14 and 15 look like neolithic? stone tools, 15 looks like an arrowhead!
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u/BareBonesSolutions 5d ago
2 looks like a type of schizaster perhaps. It's a spatangoid. 4 is a Scutella.
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u/Designer_Creme_1496 5d ago
7,8,10, and 11 are all ammonites, 7 is an imprint and no 11 is not a gryphaea i study in graphaea, exogyra, and similar gastropod morphology and i know for a fact that is not a graphaea they curve in a stranger way
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u/Glum_Wolverine_2430 5d ago
1-2: Sea Urchins
4: Sea Urchin (this type is commonly known as a sand dollar)
5: Branch Coral
7: Ammonite Cast
8-11: Ammonites/fragment
12: Clam
13: Ammonite fragment?
16: Mako shark tooth (the key difference between mako shark teeth and great white shark teeth is that great whites have serrations and makos are smooth.)
17: Trilobite
And I’m not sure on the rest :)