Ammonite

Object/Artifact

-

Crater Rock Museum

Name/Title

Ammonite

Entry/Object ID

2011.57.103

Description

Description: Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Cephalopoda Order: Ammonoidea Common Name: Ammonite Age: Jurassic Location: Unknown Description: Large, fairly detailed ammonite fossil showing a section missing from large end. Color is light and dark tan with small area of matrix on back side, with numerous small shell fossils present. 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". Kingdom: Animalia (Animals) Class: Cephalopoda Order: Ammonoidea Phylum: Arthropoda

Collection

Museum Collection of Fossils

Acquisition

Accession

2011.57

Source or Donor

Museum Collection of Fossils

Acquisition Method

Long-term Loan

Dimensions

Width

8-1/8 in

Depth

3-1/4 in

Length

9-1/4 in

Location

Location

Container

Left

Drawer

Bottom

Shelf

Left

Cabinet

Case # 51

Wall

North

Room

Delmar Smith Hall

Building

Crater Rock Museum

Category

Permanent