Iridescent Ammonite (Ammolite) in Quartz, 14"
Price on Request
This incredible specimen is a stunning example of an iridescent Canadian ammonite in grey quartz rock. Its entire shell is preserved with gorgeous ammolite. This unique piece has great shape and very bright colours. Modern Style meets Ancient Life.
Complete specimens, especially with such intense coloration and lustre, are exceedingly rare.
Ammolite is a rare, opal-like gemstone found in Alberta's Upper Cretaceous Bearpaw formation, just east of the Rocky Mountains.
Ammonite measures 14", size of the quartz slab - 22" x 19"
Deposit: Bearpaw Formation
Location: Southern Alberta, Canada
Age: Late Cretaceous (71 million years old)
Registration Number: 9 (1124)
Ammonites belong to the Mollusca Phylum in a Class known as Cephalopods – “head-footed” creatures such as octopus and squid. They swam in ancient oceans from 400 million years ago, to their extinction, along with the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.
Ammonites were free floating invertebrates that were attacked by plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, two groups of gigantic marine reptiles. One way that ammonites could avoid an attack was to quickly change their buoyancy levels, zig zagging and sinking rapidly.
These incredible prehistoric animals ranged in size from tiny species only a few centimetres in diameter to the monstrous Cretaceous ammonite, Parapuzosia seppenradensis, which grew to about 3 meters and would probably weigh close to 1500 kilograms!
