Fossil Specimen

The scientific study of the earth and its natural history was a relatively new field in the last quarter of the 18th century, and was a subject that fascinated Madison and many of his peers. In May 1786, Madison wrote a Mr. Smith requesting natural specimens, including “…stones with the figure of the shells on them and a memorandum of the situation of the ground on which they are found and their distance from the nearest water courses and whether they are frequently met with in similar or in different situations, and of the largest and smallest sizes.” This large fossil features preserved prehistoric marine organisms embedded in rock, including coiled ammonites and orthoceras (squid-like spikes), many of which died out in the Mesozoic Era about 74 million years ago. Based on the rock layer in which the fossils are embedded, this fossiliferous slab likely comes from the Atlas Mountain region on the edge of the Sahara Desert (near Erfoud, Morocco).