Our range includes differens collectible fossil specimens.

In geology  fossils are the petrified remains of ancient living organisms, as well as traces of their life. The fossils are studied by science of paleontology. Thanks to the analysis of the fossils age and their occurrence in the rock, one can draw very extensive conclusions about their habitat, recreate the natural landscape of earlier geological epochs, and establish the cause of the extinction of both a particular individual and the whole species. Well-preserved and unique fossils can often be found in museums and private collections.

As a rule, fossils are formed in sedimentary rocks such as limestone, dolomite, sandstone. In the course of sedimentary rocks  formation the suspended particles (grains of sand, clay, lime, silt, etc.) are accumulated.

Bodies and body fragments of living organisms, their eggs, shells, traces and prints on the surface of sedimentary material, eventually completely immerse in it and are subjected to pressure from new, overlying rock layers. These newly-created anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions are favorable for the conservation of organic residues. Thus pseudomorphs - the organic material of the fossils partially or completely replaced by mineral substance - are formed.

 

The class of Cephalopod mollusks  (lat. Cephalopoda)

Ammonites (lat. Ammonoidea)

Extinct cephalopods that lived on Earth from the Devonian to the Paleogene period (about 400 million years ago - 66 million years ago.) Distant relatives of modern nautilus that have retained the outer shell.

The shell of ammonites was spiral, and, as a rule, had several whorls lying in the same plane (heteromorphic ammonites serve as an exception), and many chambers, most of which were filled with gas (gas chambers) and liquid (hydrostatic chambers).

The chamber closest to the mouth (shell opening) was inhabited. Ammonites reached the size from 1 - 2 cm to 2 m and more. Ammonites belonged to nekton (free-floating marine organisms in the water column), however, benthic (bottom) forms are also known. They were predominantly predatory animals, the basis of their diet was plankton, fish, and mollusks.

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Orthoceras (lat. Orthoceras)

A genus of extinct cephalopods that lived on Earth from the Ordovician to the end of the Triassic period (about 490 million years ago - 235 million years ago).

Unlike their related ammonites, orthoceras had not a spiral, but a cone-shaped, long, elongated shell with many chambers; the mollusk lived in the largest chamber, closest to the mouth.

The average length of the animal reached 0.5 - 1.5 m, however, a specimen of an orthoceras shell about 9 m long was found in Sweden. Like ammonites, orthoceras were predatory mollusks. The elongated and streamlined shaped shell assisted them in hunting and moving in a jet propulsion. The  passage of water through the mantle cavity gave the orthoceras a significant advantage in speed compared to ammonites.

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Petrified wood

Petrified wood is one of the most common paleontological finds. These are the trees that grew in the earliar geological epochs. Their organic wood compounds were replaced with various silica minerals: quartz, chalcedony, amorphous opal. Wood can be pertified in the processes of formation of sedimentary rocks, when the wood is buried under sediments, and by post-volcanic processes of low-temperature metamorphism, with high activity of silicic acid, in places where entire forests were covered with  igneous volcanic rocks. The mineral substance in the petrified tree quite often repeats its morphology, so there are specimens with well-preserved growth rings, sometimes even whole tree trunks with branches and roots.

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Sea urchins, echinoides (lat. Echinoidea)

Sea urchins belong to the phylum of echinoderms (lat. Echinodermata) and are characterized by five-ray symmetry. The body of the urchin has an outer calcareous skeleton (shell), usually covered with needles or spikes. They originated in the Ordovician period of the Paleozoic era (about 450 million years ago) and live in the seas and oceans to this day. In calcareous sedimentary rocks, both relatively whole shells of sea urchins and their fragments, individual needles, are found.

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Trilobites (lat. Trilobita)

An extinct class of marine arthropods (lat. Arthropoda). They lived in the Paleozoic era, presumably from the Cambrian to the Permian period (about 540 million years ago - 250 million years ago). The morphology of trilobites is typical for arthropods: a dense chitinous shell, faceted eyes placed above the shell, mouth and limbs on the ventral side of the body. Some species of trilobites, apparently, were predators, as evidenced by their well-developed vision. The closest modern relatives of trilobites are woodlice and horseshoe crabs.

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Brachiopods (lat. Brachiopoda)

А type of marine invertebrates. Despite the external resemblance to bivalve mollusks, the brachiopods are not mollusks, although they have a bivalve shell. They emerged at the beginning of the Paleozoic era (about 540 million years ago). They still live in the seas and oceans (about 200 species are known). They were most common in the Devonian and Carboniferous (Carboniferous period). By the type of food, they are filter feeders - they feed on organisms suspended in water and particles of detritus (dead organic matter).

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Corals, coral polyps (lat. Anthozoa)

The marine invertebrates belong to the type of сnidaria (lat. Cnidaria). Both solitary and collonial benthic organisms. Coral - the material of the outer skeleton of coral polyps - consists mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). They arose in the Silurian period, about 450 million years ago.

In the sediments of the Carboniferous period, fossils of an extinct tabulatomorphs (lat. Tabulatomorpha) subclass are most frequently found. They have the simplest structure of the calcareous skeleton. The organization of collonia polyps for this subclass is also the simplest: dense sponge arrays, creeping collonia in the form of bushes, bubble-shaped formations.

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Shark teeth (lat. Selachi)

Sharks are representatives of the class of cartilaginous fish (lat. Chondrichthyes) along with chimaeras and stingrays. The most ancient representatives are known to appeare already in the late Silurian (about 450 million years ago). Fossilized teeth of predatory sharks are often found in limestones of the Carboniferous period.

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Dinosaur bones (lat. Dinosauria)

Dinosaurs are an extinct superorder of reptiles. They belong to the group of archosaurs (lat. Archosauria), which also includes crocodiles and birds. The first dinosaurs appeared in the middle of the Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago).

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