Toliara, Madagascar Cut & Polished Black Ammonite Pair (Set of 2)

*Product photo is of the actual item you will receive when ordered.
The unusual blackness of these ammonites is attributed to large amounts of manganese present during the fossilization of these specimen. This intriguing pair was split in half from one fossilized ammonite shell and when it fossilized, drusy quartz crystals grew in the caverns of certain segments in the shells. This fossil comes from Madagascar.
 
Over 110 million year old fossil. Rare, only 1 in 1000 Ammonites are black. Some ammonites are much older than that, up to 450 million years old. They are the closest living relative of the Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and it's closest cousin the Nautilus. First appeared - in shallow seas about 450 million year ago. Extinct - in a cataclysmic event in the Cretaceous, with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Began life - less than 1 mm in diameter. About the size of a period in this sentence. But they grew fast. Females - reported to grow 400% bigger than males. Shells - comprised of chambers growing as the ammonite did. Making 13 new chambers each year. The ammonite lived in the last section, called the living segment. Medieval Europe - Ammonites were thought to be petrified snakes. They were called "snakestones" or "serpent stones". Ammonites were said to be evidence for the actions of St. Hilda and St. Patrick - who drove the snakes out of Ireland. In ancient times, traders would carve the face of a snake into the wide end of the ammonite fossil and sell them to the public.