Ammonite Fossil Gemstone Handmade 925 Sterling Silver Pendant with smoky topaz 2.13 inches long 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. Often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek (κέρας) for “horn”. Ammonites 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, & cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, & the last species died out during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Ammonite Fossil Gemstone Sterling Silver Pendant With Smoky Topaz
