19.2" Polished Ammonite, Clam, and Nautilus Cluster - Madagascar

Polished Ammonite, Clam, and Nautilus Cluster - Madagascar #236972

Here is a large cluster of polished ammonites still embedded in the rock in which they were found. The entire specimen measures 19.2 x 14.5 x 12", it weighs 103 lbs, and the large center ammonite measures 9.3" wide. Many other fossils including clams, cephalopods, ammonites, and a nautilus have been exposed from the rock. This specimen sits up nicely along one edge, or can be laid on its side for presentation.

The ammonites are Cretaceous (Albian Stage) in age, or approximately 110 million years old and are quarried in the Mahajanga Province of Madagascar.

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