Description
Pierre Shale Ammonite with a bit of color.
Ammonites from this area are quite nicely preserved and this one has a bit of opalescent color on it.
This South Dakota Ammonite was found in the Pierre Shale of South Dakota while surface collecting fossils. It still remains in a partial nodule which makes it really nice as a cabinet piece.
Ammonite fossils come from marine animals belonging to a phylum of Mollusks and the Class Cephalopods. They had a coiled shell. The Ammonites were like the modern-day octopus but today the octopus have lost their shell. Ammonites evolved some 416 million years ago and were once one of the most abundant animals of the Paleozoic seas. The creature lived within the shell which formed into a spiral. The spiral was made up of ever-increasing chambers.
This South Dakota Ammonite is 2 1/4 inches wide sitting on a nodule that is 3 1/4 by 2 1/2.
