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What is *inside* this Ammonite? Could it be an egg? A tooth?


JohnBurrows

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Sadly, this is something I don't have any provenance on. I think its probably from the Inferior Oolite of Dorset or at least South England. 

 

It came in a job lot of other Ammonites and I didn't pay it too much attention until I saw a small inclusion - around 3.5MM round. I've taken some photos with my digital 'microscope', and some with my camera too. You can spot the odd fella at the end furthest away from the flat cut base. 

 

I'm sure this is nothing; I haven't seen anything quite like it before though. I am curious if anyone has any ideas - I haven't seen anything similar before. 

 

The only things I can think of is 'a fossilised fart', a tooth, or an egg. Nothing can be seen on the rear, unfortunately, although I may try to clean the rear up somewhat. 

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Edited by JohnBurrows
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15 minutes ago, Kane said:

Possibly a gastropod. Very cool!

I didn't even consider the possibility that something could have crawled into the shell after it died! 

 

Thank you, that's an interesting world of possibility. 

Edited by JohnBurrows
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It looks like it could be a foraminifera to me.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt

 

-Mark Twain

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A gastropod seems likely as others have said. Most often other fossils are found in the living chamber but I've seen them get into other chambers too. Sometimes they get in via prior damage and maybe sometimes they get in through burrowing. I don't slice a lot of ammonites so I'm not sure of the extent but I suspect this might be common in some areas. Here's one of mine I sliced in half that has bivalves and gastropods in the chambers.

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And here's damage on one side where some ended up in a chamber.

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3 hours ago, JohnBurrows said:

I didn't even consider the possibility that something could have crawled into the shell after it died! 

 

Thank you, that's an interesting world of possibility. 

I think that it was rather washed in along with the sediment. My impression is also that of a gastropod. I don't think that foraminifera got that large at that stage.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Yep, gastropod was also my first impression... Interesting observation, though. Makes you wonder why it's there. In the living chambers, which I understand regularly get filled up with sediment/mud, I can fully imagine other fossils having washed in. But I find this harder to believe when these fossils are found more interiorly - unless, of course, damage on the shell's outside would make this possible.

 

As to ammonite eggs, they have a distinctive round look. And while I'm not sure as to their internal structure, one can only imagine them being similar to other cephalopod eggs in the sense that they would be soft-shelled and easily collapse following birth of the ammonite inside. The structure in this ammonite rather seems to spiral...

 

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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Definitely a gastropod, awesome!

~ Isaac; www.isaactfm.com 

 

"Don't move! He can't see us if we don't move!" - Alan Grant

 

Come to the spring that is The Fossil Forum, where the stream of warmth and knowledge never runs dry.

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