Beautiful 2.63 Inch Polished Ammonite - Very Thick

Beautiful Inch Polished Ammonite - Very Thick #631

Here is a beautiful polished ammonite fossil from the Cretaceous of Madagascar showing a beautiful "oak leaf" suture pattern. Out of the dozens of cut and polished ammonites I received this one stands apart due to how thick it is (more than 1 inch). I'm not sure whether this is due to it being a different species than the typical Cleoniceras or simply different preservation. Either way it's a beautiful specimen.

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. Ammonites appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago and they barely survived several major extinction events. The last lineages disappeared 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous.

Artists reconstruction of an ammonite. By Nobu Tamura

More about ammonites