Name/Title
AmmoniteEntry/Object ID
2011.57.60Description
Description: Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Family: Ammonoidea
Common Name: Ammonite
Age: Devonian
Location: Erfoud, Atlas Mountains,Morocco, Africa
Description: Small rocky matrix with many fossil shells encrusted within and one large distinct Ammonite protruding from one end. Matrix is dark gray to black. Ammonite is creamy tan to dark brown with some irredescence.
Physical Characteristics:
Ammonites (/'æm?na?ts/) are an extinct group of marine invertebrate animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e. octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species.Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although there were some helically-spiraled and non-spiraled forms (known as heteromorphs).The name ammonite, from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD. near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing ram's horns.[1] Often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek (???a?) for "horn".
Family: Ammonoidea
Kingdom: Animalia (Animals)
Class: Cephalopoda
Phylum: MolluscaCollection
Museum Collection of FossilsAcquisition
Accession
2011.57Source or Donor
Museum Collection of FossilsAcquisition Method
Long-term LoanDimensions
Width
1-11/16 inDepth
1-1/2 inLength
2-1/2 inLocation
Location
Shelf
CS-H-4Room
Curation StorageBuilding
Crater Rock MuseumCategory
StorageMoved By
Jillian Mather KettleyDate
February 7, 2024
