cephalopod of the day: ammonites/ammonoids

if you've ever seen a fossil in the wild before, its most likely going to be an ammonite! i have so many little fossils i've found over the years of these guys, from lime regis to welsh and scottish quarries and mountains!

there are around 10,000 discovered species of ammonoids and evolutionarily speaking they're the most perfect animal to exist. surviving 3 mass extinctions (including the permian one that killed over 95% of life on the planet) these goobers did whatever they wanted. they ate a whole spectrum of animal life from microscopic critters to crustaceans, basically whatever fit in that mouth of theirs. also, there's not exactly a set size that these things grew to. some only had an adult length of an inch or so whereas others grew to about 9 feet in width.

tldr: ammonites were too op so mother nature had to get rid of them. but they live on through their spiritual successor, the chambered nautilus :)