1.6" Pyritized Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil in Rock - Germany

Pyritized Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil in Rock - Germany #125421

This is a beautiful pyritized ammonite (Pleuroceras spinatum) 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.

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