Tethys Ocean Floor - Authentic Ancient Seafloor Fossil Specimen from Nepal

A Tethys Ocean Fossil Specimen From a Vanished Sea

This Tethys Ocean fossil specimen is a real piece of a seafloor that no longer exists. It was collected in the Himalayas of Nepal.

Product Details

• Specimen: Hand-cut piece of Tethys Ocean floor
• Origin: Banks of the Gandaki (Kali) River, Himalayas, Nepal
• Rock: Dark oceanic slate, a Nepal ammonite shale with belemnite fossils
• Display: Acrylic jar inside a classic glass-topped riker case
• Includes: Information card that serves as the certificate of authenticity
• Note: Each ancient ocean floor fossil is unique.

A Sea Inside Pangaea

The Tethys Ocean formed inside the supercontinent Pangaea. Drifting continents squeezed it into a seaway from the Caribbean to the Himalayas.

Colliding plates closed the sea and lifted its floor thousands of feet. Its sediments now help make up the Alps, Carpathians, Pamirs and Himalayas.

From the Himalayas to Your Hands

This ancient ocean floor fossil comes from the banks of the Gandaki River. The dark Nepal ammonite shale is packed with ammonite and belemnite fossils.

Ammonites, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs once swam these waters. The same river also yields shaligrams, smooth stones with spiral patterns.

Compare it with pieces from our Natural History Collection and Authentic Fossil Specimens.

Display and Care

Keep the Tethys Ocean fossil specimen dry and away from knocks. Shale can flake.

About the Tethys

Geologists use the name for a sea that vanished. The Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas are remnants. This Tethys Ocean floor piece lets you hold part of it.

For More Reading from the Web

• Learn how the Tethys Ocean opened and closed. The Tethys Ocean: A Lost Prehistoric Sea - Mini Museum
• Read the supplier's page on this specimen. Tethys Specimen - Mini Museum