15" Tractor Ammonite (Douvilleiceras) Fossil - Monster Specimen!

Tractor Ammonite (Douvilleiceras) Fossil - Monster Specimen! #207432

This is an absolutely monstrous Douvilleiceras ammonite from the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar. It measures in at a whopping 15" wide and all together weighs 54 lbs. This genus of ammonite has earned the local name "Tractor Ammonites", due to their distinctively bumpy surface and pronounced ridges which resemble a tractor's tires. This particular example has been polished and nicely prepared to remove the hard rock and expose the shell. This is by far the largest ammonite of this species that we have ever had!

Three additional Douvilleiceras ammonites have been mounted to the open end of the large ammonite, along with 3 Cretaceous age clams of the genus Astarte. This stunning display comes with a large metal stand.

The center of these large ammonites rarely preserve which is the case with this specimen. A smaller Douvilleiceras ammonite has been composited into the center of the large 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