4.9" Giant Ammonite Aptychus Fossil in Rock - Smoky Hill Chalk

Giant Ammonite Aptychus Fossil in Rock - Smoky Hill Chalk #208260

This is a fossil aptychus that has been exposed from the rock it was found in. It was collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk of Gove County, Kansas. This is a unique fossil that comes from the part of the body of an ammonite known as an aptychus. It's debated as to whether the aptychus is a two part hatch that covered the opening of the ammonite, or a double-plate jaw piece. At their initial discovery the aptychus was mistaken for a bivalve fossil. One mostly complete hatch and a second, partial hatch are present on the rock

Comes with an acrylic and metal display stand.

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