Fossil Turritella & Ammonite Earrings - Sterling Silver

This is a pair of beautiful earrings made from polished, agatized gastropod (snail) fossils from Wyoming. These fossils are Eocene in age or approximately 45-50 million years old. While they are commonly referred to as Turritella, these ones are technically of the species Elimia tenera. Elimia is a genus of freshwater snail while Turritella lived in salt water.

There are also 110 million year old cut and polished ammonite fossils on these earrings. These ammonites are quarried in the Mahajanga Province province of Madagascar and lived at a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. The polishing allows the stunning inner chambers to be seen which have been replaced by agate over millions of years.

About Ammonites

Ammonites were ancient marine cephalopods, similar to today's squids and octopuses, but with a defining feature: their distinctive, tightly coiled spiral shells. These shells, resembling those of modern nautiluses, served as both a protective home and a buoyancy aid, allowing ammonites to navigate the prehistoric seas with ease. First emerging around 240 million years ago in the Triassic Period, ammonites thrived for over 175 million years, adapting through numerous forms and sizes. As predatory creatures, they likely fed on smaller marine organisms, using their tentacles to capture prey. However, their long reign came to an end 65 million years ago at the close of the Cretaceous, coinciding with the mass extinction event that also eliminated the dinosaurs.

What an ammonite would have looked like while alive.