10" Free-Standing Baculite - Pierre Shale

This is a 10 inch long Baculites compressus fossil from the Pierre Shale of South Dakota. Baculites ("walking stick rock") is an extinct cephalopod genus with a nearly straight shell. The matrix it is preserved in has been sculpted so that it stands up freely, making for a very aesthetic display. It's approximately 75 million years old, and comes from a time when a shallow sea covered much of South Dakota.