2.4" Pyritized Ammonite Fossil - Russia

Pyritized Ammonite Fossil - Russia #175051

This is a gorgeous pyritized ammonite that was collected from a Middle Jurassic deposit along the banks of the Volga River near Saratov, Russia. You can feel the heft of the iron pyrite in the specimen when you hold it in your hand.

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