A LARGE MURAL OF FOSSILIZED SAINT-JACQUES SHELLS

A LARGE MURAL OF FOSSILIZED SAINT-JACQUES SHELLS

LACOSTE QUARRY, VAUCLUSE, SOUTHERN FRANCE

Gigantopectens restitutensis (198 x 110 cm), Burdigalien, early Miocene period (20-16 million years ago). An elegant large, ivory-colored mural.

Fossilized scallops (Gigantopectens restitutensis), also known as Saint-Jacques shells, are found in the carbonate platforms of the Miocene. It took hundreds of painstaking hours to reveal the delicate fossils — nothing compared to the millions of years taken by nature to create this elegantly sculptural fossil.