LARGE PRECIOUS GEM AMMONITE. ...

Description

LARGE PRECIOUS GEM AMMONITE
Placenticeras meeki
Upper Cretaceous
Bearpaw formation, Alberta, Canada
Gem ammolite ammonites are amongst the most beautiful of all fossils, and presented here is a superb example. The incredible iridescent colors that shimmer throughout the shell were naturally created by the combination of millions of years of compression and the mineralization of iron, copper and silica which precipitated from the bentonite sediment of volcanic ash. In most cases elsewhere, the aragonite-rich nacre (mother-of-pearl) of the ammonite's shell is pseudomorphously replaced by calcite or pyrite, but in the small Bearpaw formation, stretching over parts of Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the ammonite's shell becomes tainted with trace elements such as manganese, strontium, titanium, barium and others, manifested in the dazzling colors displayed here. The resulting gemstone is called ammolite, although it is known to the Káínawa, or Blood Tribe, of southern Alberta as aapoak ("small, crawling stone") and to the Blackfeet Indians of Montana as iniskim ("buffalo stone") and has long been believed to have amuletic powers of use in healing and in attracting buffalo. Practitioners of feng shui and crystal metaphysics value it as the Kirin stone, or seven-color prosperity stone, and believe it to be useful in detoxifying the body and promoting energy flow and prosperity. This is an example of fine size, 17 inches across, displaying both full-body three-dimensionality as well as the characteristic flattening in one area caused by the immense pressures of fossilization. Both sides retain excellent coverage of the dazzling array of iridescent colors - fiery red, shimmering green, and the rare and bewitching deep blue/purple.

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