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Provenance: Swiss private collection

Ammonites are fossilized shells of extinct cephalopods and are equally important for the study of geology and paleontology. Thanks to their great variety of forms and unique beauty, they are popular collectors' items. Ammonites were named "Ammons horns" after the ancient Egyptian god of life and reproduction, who was usually depicted with ram's horns.

Ancyloceras is an extinct genus of heteromorph ammonites found worldwide during the Lower Cretaceous. The basic shape of the calcareous shell of the ammonites is a conical tube, which is rolled up in the manner of a logarithmic spiral to form a so-called plane spiral. Partly, housings developed, which unrolled in all spatial directions. The forms called aberrant or heteromorphic ammonites were considered for a long time as "abnormal", as evolutionary degeneracy. In part, this was even used to explain the extinction of ammonites. In more recent research, these forms are rather seen as adaptations to the strong sea level rises towards the end of the Secondary Era. Ammonites populated the seas during a long time, and the first known forms date from about 400 million years ago. They died out only at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago, at the same time as the dinosaurs.

The group of ammonites presented here shows an incredible number of species and subspecies. The fascinating and almost impossible thing about this wonderful group is the fact that it was found and prepared exactly like this by a palaeontologist. The various cephalopods all show a very good state of preservation and very little restoration.