4.6" Jurassic Ammonite (Parkinsonia) Fossil With Belemnite - England

Jurassic Ammonite (Parkinsonia) Fossil With Belemnite - England #240842

This is a gorgeous, 4.6" wide example of Parkinsonia rarecosta, a species of ammonite from the Inferior Oolite of Dorset, England. It is Jurassic in age and has been meticulously exposed from the rock it was found in. A belemnite fossil has also been exposed, resulting in this natural fossil association. The base of the rock has been cut flat for presentation.

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