beautiful opalescent colorful ammonite, called ammolite, from Canada

A free-standing Ammolite from Alberta, Canada, preserved on both sides and grown to 32.5 cm in diameter.

The iridescence is dominated by deep emerald green and turquoise blue, with purple-violet and fine orange accents at the shell edges. This color range makes Canadian Ammolites the most sought-after form of fossil shell preservation worldwide.

Ammolite consists of the iridescent aragonite shell of prehistoric ammonites. In the Bearpaw Shale of the Upper Cretaceous, the shell was transformed into its present opalescent form around 65 million years ago under pressure and mineralization.

Only a narrow geographical strip along the eastern Rocky Mountain slopes yields this quality, mainly in the catchment area of the St. Mary River.

The color development of the individual iridescence fields is not random: red-orange occurs in thinner layers, green-blue in thicker ones. On such a piece, the layer thickness variation of the original shell can be read, information that would be lost in polished cabochons.

A collector's item preserved on both sides, allowing for two different display possibilities.