Ammonites and Ammolites

This funky critter, an ammonite called Ateroceras, represents the family of ammonites that lived from 400 to 65.5 million years ago.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

Fossilized ammonites are commonly found all over the world and are used to date other fossils.  The fossils can be very small to two+ feet across and are often used in jewelry (the small ones, that is).   

Ammonite fossils with gold filled wire at www.etsy.com/shop/alanadouvros?ref=seller_info

Pyritized ammonite fossils with diamonds and 14kt gold by

www.etsy.com/shop/SimplyUniqueJD?ref=seller_info

Two species of ammonite, placentaris meeki and buculites compresus, fossilized differently into opalescent gemstones called ammolites.  Like pearls and amber, these fossils are organic gems.   Red and green are the most common ammolite colors with blue and purple being the rarest. 

Ammolite, diamond, and 14 kt gold at  www.etsy.com/shop/enikodesign?page=1  (And these will be mine for Christmas!)

Those diamonds are old, old, old carbon that changed under great heat and pressure for millions of years and the flashing bright colors that will swing next to my cheekbones are an old, old, old tentacled creature that died, sunk into the ooze, and was chemically altered over eons...made beautiful by pressure, time, and mysterious alchemy that "happened."  Not unlike us...