3" Fossil Baculites Section - South Dakota

This is a section of a fossil Baculites from the Pierre Shale of South Dakota. It displays a well defined suture pattern on the surface.

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.