2.1" Sliced Pyritized Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil Pair - Germany

Sliced Pyritized Ammonite (Pleuroceras) Fossil Pair - Germany #125375

This is a gorgeous pyritized/agatized ammonite (Pleuroceras spinatum) fossil collected from the Holzbachacker clay pit of Buttenheim, Bavaria/Germany. It's Jurassic, Pliensbachian stage or approximately 190 million years old. It has been cut and polished, allowing for the gorgeous mineralizations within and around the chambers of the ammonite to be seen. You can feel the heft of the iron pyrite in the specimen when you hold it in your hand.

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