This is a close up photo of one of the ammonite pendants in my gallery. It's not a particularly awesome photo, but I just love how the colors look up close!! This is about a kajillion times larger than life size. Nature is fantastic and does stuff that we can only begin to imagine!!
To see the original, full size piece, go here: [link]
Ammonites are a fossil and often a gemstone too! They are an extinct type of marine animal in the cephalopod family (today their closest relatives are thought to be cuttlefish, octopus and squid). They lived during the days of the dinosaurs and these fossils are millions of years old. Sometimes when the fossil formed, the geological process caused the aragonite within to from into layers, which causes the light to interfere with the structure and creates fantastic opal rainbow colors. These are often cut into gemstones called ammolites. This is not ammolite, but a solid fossil ammonite- it's NOT a hollow shell like a seashell, but full of fossil rock! It's heavier than it looks.