Seeing the light of day.
This week's Saturday Timewatch again goes back to the Jurassic period. Seeing the light of day for the first time in around 150 million years, give or take, this large fist-sized chunk of giant ammonite had been washed out of the cliffs during a very wet winter season. It is a very degraded specimen but look carefully and you can make out vertical grooves.
What is most interesting is that there was a 'bonus ball' underneath. A degraded but recognisable belemnite, part of a squid-like creature, is embedded in the same chunk of rock (see photo below). Although it is tempting to think so, I don't know of any evidence to suggest ammonites ever ate the creatures of which belemnites were a part. It is just coincidence that both have emerged together after all these years.
Seeing the light of day.
This week's Saturday Timewatch again goes back to the Jurassic period. Seeing the light of day for the first time in around 150 million years, give or take, this large fist-sized chunk of giant ammonite had been washed out of the cliffs during a very wet winter season. It is a very degraded specimen but look carefully and you can make out vertical grooves.
What is most interesting is that there was a 'bonus ball' underneath. A degraded but recognisable belemnite, part of a squid-like creature, is embedded in the same chunk of rock (see photo below). Although it is tempting to think so, I don't know of any evidence to suggest ammonites ever ate the creatures of which belemnites were a part. It is just coincidence that both have emerged together after all these years.