Among all these fossils of
ancient extinct life, fossils of ammonite were the most ancient. Ammonite was an
oceanic invertebrate mollusk living 200 million years ago. Being a kind of
invertebrate and semi-natatory mollusk, they generally dwelled in the seabed 50
m to 80 m under the surface. There are more than 200 pieces of ammonite fossils
excavated in Heyuan Ammonite oryctocoenose, ranking first in amount and
varieties and scale in the country. Heyuan Ammonite oryctocoenose is reputed as
the "King of Ammonite in Southland". Among the ammonite fossils, the biggest one
has a diameter of 42 cm while the smallest has the same size as the fingernail
surface. Geoscience specialist considers that, the discovery of Heyuan ammonite
fossil community is of great significance to the research of ancient geography,
geologic climate and environment as well as tourism development in South China.
The ammonite fossil has a semi-revolute
shell, with flat and shrunken sides and a furrow in the center of the belly. The
shell surface is thickly dotted strips of fine and slightly crooked cross ribs,
which slantwise extends from umbilical wall to the front of shell and forms an
obvious tubercle around the belly. With perfect preservation
and odd appearance and texturing, these fossils look like chrysanthemum embedded
in stone with lovely shape. They are also precious ornamental
stones.