3.8" Toarcian Spiny Ammonite (Porpoceras) Fossil - France

Toarcian Spiny Ammonite (Porpoceras) Fossil - France #228171

This is a gorgeous, spiny ammonite fossil of the species Porpoceras verticosum that was collected near Belmont, France. It is Toarcian (Jurassic period) in age, or approximately 180 million years old. It has been exposed from the rock, and the edge of the rock has been cut so as to serve as a base.

Most of the spines have some degree of restoration.

Ammonites were predatory cephalopod mollusks that resembled squids with spiral shells. They are more closely related to living octopuses, though their shells resemble that of nautilus species. True ammonites appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago during the Triassic Period. The last lineages disappeared 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous.

What an ammonite would have looked like while alive.

More about ammonites