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AMMONITES
| Ammonites are relatives
of the modern chambered nautilus shell. They flourished some 350
million years ago in warm, shallow seas. About 65 million years ago
great droughts led to their extinction and they were buried by layers of
sediment. The fossilization process took many years as the original shells
were replaced by the minerals in the sediment. Most ammonites were
coiled discs with complex patterns of ridges and suture lines. This
suture pattern is important to species identification and shows where the
inner chamber walls meet the outer shell.
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