Natilus

[DanielFrew]

Found this very large Natilus Fossil along a creek in Pope County Arkansas.

 

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[old digger]

Nice ammonite! You may want to carefully clean it with a soft brush and some light detergent.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Nice find. Could be very decorative. I think you can safely soak the piece in a laundry bleach solution (with a bit of detergent added) to get rid of the organic growths on the slab. Then you can give it a light brushing to remove any remaining debris. Show us an "after" image.

 

[Mrdigz]

Very nice!

 

[Inyo]

The specimen is an ammonoid cephalopod (not an ammonite, by the way, which is exclusive to stata of Jurassic through Cretaceous age). And all cephalopod-bearing material of Pope County, Arkansas, is Pennsylvanian in geologic age (upper Carboniferous of European designation), roughly 323 to 298 million years old.

Check out the figured fossils from Plates 1-30 (beginning on page 323) at Carboniferous Cephalopods of Arkansas. Perhaps you can find a genus-species match there to your specimen. Also, you might want to contact invertebrate paleontologist Dr. Ben Waggoner over at the University of Central Arkansas (in Conway) for an identification.

An ammonoid from the upper Mississippian Perdido Formation I encountered several years ago in Death Valley National Park: Cravenoceras merriami.

 

[DanielFrew]

Thanks for the information everyone. Inyo that is a nice one from Death Valley National Park. I donated this one to a local school for their science teacher to use in the classroom. Enjoyed the book in your link and will definitely use it in the future. Come across nice fossils all of the time.

Dan

 

[MrBlueSkyNM]

Very nice! Glad you donated it to a school for educational purposes!