11" Jurassic Ammonite Fossil With Stand - Sakaraha, Madagascar

Jurassic Ammonite Fossil With Stand - Sakaraha, Madagascar #51260

This is a heavy, 11" wide ammonite fossil collected near Sakaraha in the Tulear Province of Madagascar. It is Jurassic (Oxfordian Stage) in age in age. There is not a lot of good identification material available for the species at this location, but the genus is likely Kranosphinctites or something very similar. The entire specimen weighs about 16 1/2lbs and has been lightly polished with some minor repair work.

Ammonites were predatory mollusks that resembled a squid with a shell. These cephalopods had eyes, tentacles, and spiral shells. They are more closely related to a living octopus, though the shells resemble that of a nautilus. True ammonites appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago. 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