Orthoceras are prehistoric cephalopods related to squid and octopus.
This beautiful orthoceras (meaning “Straight Horn”) fossil is from the Sahara Desert in Morocco. It dates to the Devonian Period – 395 to 345 million years old!
These ancient mollusks had long, straight shells divided into chambers connected by a tube, called the “siphuncle”.
The creature lived in the largest chamber at the top, and would exchange air and water between the other chambers to regulate buoyancy.
