NATURE TABLE EXPLORER

Nature Table number 8 is a table full of Ammonites collected at Sedbury cliffs. Ammonites are a fossil everyone knows and their image is often used in design and art. They are incredible extinct organisms well worth a closer look.

I have drawn the outlines of the missing shells to try and show where the pieces are from.

There were a couple of large pieces below.

Ammonites are extinct , the closest living organism alive today is the nautilus.

Ammonites are molluscs and part of the group called the cephalopods, this includes octopus, squid, cuttlefish and the nautilus.

Ammonite facts

• Ammonites were living for 140 million years during the Jurassic- Cretaceous which spans 201-66 million years ago. They became extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs.
• They could live in water to depths of 100M the coiled shell is separated into chambers divided by septa. These structures strengthened the shell.
• The shell is made of three layers of Aragonite the middle layer being nacerous ( mother of Pearl) this nautilus shell at the natural history museum in London has been decorated and carved in the mother of Pearl layer.
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The rocks at Sedbury cliffs were rich in Ammonites. There were many that were in large blocks along the shoreline.

The Oxford Natural History Museum has a brilliant display of British fossils along the ground floor galleries. I have added a few that caught my eye.