Location: Jbel Timetrout, Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Weight: 4.1 Ounces

Dimension: 2.5 Inches Long, 2 Inches Wide, 1.1 Inches Thick

This is a real fossil

Upper Cretaceous, 80 Million Years Old

The items pictured are the ones you will receive. 

Mammites Nodosoides Ammonite

Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals that belong to the subclass Ammonoidea, which is part of the class Cephalopoda. They thrived during the Mesozoic era, particularly in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which spanned approximately 140 million years, from about 201 million years ago to their extinction around 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. This extinction event coincided with the demise of the dinosaurs and was likely caused by a combination of catastrophic environmental changes, including a significant asteroid impact.

Ammonites are characterized by their distinctive coiled shells, which can vary greatly in size and shape. Their shells were typically divided into chambers separated by walls known as septa. The living animal occupied only the last chamber, known as the body chamber, while earlier chambers were filled with gas or fluid to help regulate buoyancy. The intricate suture patterns where these septa joined the shell wall are key features used for identifying different species and genera.

The ammonite shell served multiple functions: it provided protection from predators and helped with flotation in water. 

Ammonites were carnivorous creatures that likely fed on small plankton and other marine organisms such as crustaceans and possibly even other ammonites. They possessed tentacle-like appendages for capturing prey and had sharp beak-like jaws similar to modern cephalopods. Fossil evidence suggests that they may have been agile swimmers, inhabiting warm shallow seas rather than deep ocean environments.

Their evolutionary history shows a remarkable diversity; over 10,000 species have been identified from fossil records found globally. Ammonites evolved rapidly over geological time scales, making them excellent index fossils for dating rock layers due to their short geological lifespan.

The evolutionary lineage of ammonites can be traced back to straight-shelled nautiloids during the Devonian period. Throughout their existence, they underwent significant morphological changes leading to more complex shell structures with intricate suture patterns that improved buoyancy control. Despite surviving several mass extinction events throughout their history—including the Permian-Triassic extinction—they ultimately succumbed during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event around 66 million years ago.

This final extinction is believed to have been triggered by a massive asteroid impact that drastically altered global climates and disrupted food chains in marine ecosystems.