AN EXQUISITE HETEROMORPH AMMONITE. ...

Description

AN EXQUISITE HETEROMORPH AMMONITE
Didymoceras nebrascenense
Late Cretaceous (70 million years old)
Pierre Shale Formation, Southwestern South Dakota

The most desirable of all ammonites are the coprolitic heteromorph (meaning loosely coiled) ammonites such as Didymoceras. Their bizarre shapes have inspired the imaginations of ammonite collectors the world over. Didymoceras ("Paired Horns" from the Greek) is probably the most desired ammonite in all the world and is considered the "Holy Grail" to ammonite collectors. These strange cephalopods, related to modern day squids and Nautilus, probably floated in the water column, moving primarily up and down through schools of their desired prey, and then would ambush their meal as it swam by too closely. These rare specimens cannot be commercially collected or mined and are only randomly found by collectors as shale nodules are cracked open in the search for more common ammonites and scaphites. Specimens such as this are extremely rare and are truly among the very rarest fossils on Earth.

This excellent example has been painstakingly freed from its surrounding rock matrix. It exhibits a dark honey to pearlized white iridescent shell and measures 5 x 4 1/4 inches in diameter across the coils. The very top "hairpin" coil was missing and this relatively small structure has been restored but the specimen is still over 90% original, making it very high quality overall. An incredible and aesthetic example of "Nature's Art".

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