Curiosities & Oddities
Whale Vertebra Fossil Ornament.
A single fossilized whale vertebra from Morocco's Miocene sea beds, about ten million years old, ochre and gray mineral where bone once was, and entirely one of one.
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About this product
Ten million years ago, a whale swam a shallow sea where the Moroccan desert lies today. This is one bone of its spine, turned to stone, and it sits on a shelf with the particular gravity of something once very large now reduced to a single solid piece.
The once-spongy bone has been replaced entirely by dense, ochre-and-gray mineral, and its knobbed processes, worn smooth underground, still show the rough architecture of the living bone. It comes from Miocene marine deposits in Morocco, laid down roughly ten million years ago, and was legally collected under license. Older naturalists, finding such bones without the science to explain them, called them the remains of giants. Modern paleontology has since given the bone its proper account, though the sense of age it carries is unchanged.
Details
- Fossilized whale vertebra, Miocene, roughly ten million years old
- From marine deposits in Morocco, legally collected under license
- Weighs between 0.6 and 1.0 kilograms; each specimen unique in shape and heft
How to use
Set it on a shelf or desk on its own rather than grouped with other pieces; it asks for space around it. Dust it only with a dry, soft cloth, and never wet or oil the mineral surface. Sold as a curiosity, with no medical or scientific claims.
A single, weighty piece of deep time, entirely one of one.
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Whale Vertebra Fossil Ornament
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