Location – Ambarimaringa, Madagascar
Jurassic, 165 million years ago

Ammonites are the ancient equivalent to the modern-day chambered Nautilus. These sea faring squids built a chambered shell in which they would pump air into the empty chambers and float at different levels of the ocean in search of food. Many ammonoids probably lived in the open water of ancient seas, rather than at the sea bottom. This is suggested by the fact that their fossils are often found in rocks that were laid down under conditions where no bottom-dwelling life is found. Many of them are thought to have been good swimmers with flattened, discus-shaped, streamlined shells, although some ammonoids were less effective swimmers and were likely to have been slow-swimming bottom-dwellers.

ammD04 with leather cord $28