1.1" Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil & Gastropod in Rock - Germany

Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil & Gastropod in Rock - Germany #125431

This is an ammonite (Pleuroceras transiens) fossil and a gastropod fossil collected from the Holzbachacker clay pit near Buttenheim, Bavaria/Germany. It's Jurassic, Pliensbachian stage or approximately 190 million years old. Most of the surrounding rock has been removed to expose this ammonite and gastropod. One edge of the rock has been cut flat.

Ammonites were predatory cephalopod mollusks that resembled squids with spiral shells. They are more closely related to living octopuses, though their shells resemble that of nautilus species. True ammonites appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago during the Triassic Period. The last lineages disappeared 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous.

What an ammonite would have looked like while alive.

More about ammonites