.55" Gastropod Fossil in Rock - Germany

Gastropod Fossil in Rock - Germany #125432

This is a gastropod fossil collected from the Holzbachacker clay pit near Buttenheim, Bavaria/Germany. It's Jurassic, Pliensbachian stage or approximately 190 million years old. Most of the surrounding rock has been removed to expose this gastropod.

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