65 Million Year Old Earrings!

Yes you read that right - 65 million years old!  Well, maybe the earrings I made aren't exactly that old, I just finished them last week, but hear me out!

The Ammonite fossils in these newest earrings are from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of our earth's history; they went extinct about the same time as dinosaurs did.  They were prolific breeders, and therefore are some of the most abundant fossils that are found today.

They do have a surviving relative in today's world, it is called the Nautilus, which is currently found in the western pacific ocean.

The spiral you see in the fossil is called a planispiral.  Each section that is visible is actually a chamber, but the living animal occupied only the largest chamber. Additional chambers were added as the animal increased in size.

It is believed that these sea creatures lived in ancient open seas, and ammonite fossils are found in sediment, often near seacoasts.

Now as regards the silver, it's atomic symbol is Ag, which refers to argentums, the Latin word for silver. The word "silver" is from the Anglo-Saxon word seolfor.  Silver mining was first evidenced in 3000BC in Turkey and Greece.

If you like history and science, these beautiful Ammonite earrings are a great conversation piece, prefaced by "What, these old things?"