What Do You Need To Know About Ammonites If you are an avid fossil collector, you might have heard or collected ammonites, the shelled cephalopods that existed in the world’s oceans about 66 million years ago. Unlike dinosaur fossils and shark teeth, fossils of ammonites are found in abundance around the world. Their size ranges from two to three inches to up to six feet. Rare ammonites were even bigger than the average size of a human being. Fossils of ammonites for sale are available at many reputed fossil dealers that you can add to your collection. In this post, we have answered some questions about ammonites that you might have in mind. What exactly were ammonites? Though it’s a common belief that ammonites were coiled-up snakes that had turned into a stone due to fossilization, they were not reptiles. Despite being popularly called snakestones, they were mollusks that dwelled on the ocean’s floors. Ammonites were born with shells that grew into chambers as they aged. With their growing body, they might move their entire body to a new section and live behind their previous living quarters. However, how they built a new chamber to live in is still unknown to paleontologists. Evidence from fossils indicates ammonites first appeared approximately 450 million years ago. The true ammonites, known as Amminitida, existed in Jurassic Period, about 200 million years ago. Like dinosaurs, most ammonites got extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, which was 66 million years ago. Though
a few species survived the mass extinction, all of them eventually became extinct in the Palaeogene Period. What was the total number of ammonite species? It is difficult to tell the exact number of ammonite species found so far because of their attributes that set them apart from one another. Fossils of ammonites are found in multiple sizes, shapes, ages, locations, and features. That said, paleontologists have discovered over 20,000 species of ammonites till now. From stratigraphical records, scientists have figured out their evolutionary history. How did ammonites go extinct? As said earlier, most ammonite species got extinct like dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Period after an asteroid collided with Earth, leading to global mass extinction. Food scarcity in the oceans was probably the primary cause of ammonites extinction. Studies suggested that ammonites like today’s cephalopods survived on fish, bivalves, and planktons, depending on their size. Nautiloids, the close relatives of ammonites, probably survived this extinction because they dwelled in the deep ocean, unlike ammonites. Deeper water environments were less affected by the asteroid impact and loss of photosynthesis compared to environments in shallow water where ammonites flourished in abundance. If you do not have ammonites in your collection yet, we suggest looking for fossils of ammonites for sale at once. Be sure to buy them only from a reputed fossil dealer. Author’s Bio – The author is an online blogger. This article is about ammonites