2" Iridescent Fossil Ammonite (Phylloceras) - Madagascar

Iridescent Fossil Ammonite (Phylloceras) - Madagascar #162618

This is a 2" fossil ammonite (Phylloceras) from the Mahajanga Province of Madagascar. If you catch it in the right light or particularly if it is wet, the fossil shines with a brilliant iridescence.

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