Tuesday 16 February 2021

NEOCOMITES: AMMONITE ESPANA

This lovely burnt-orange ammonite is Neocomites (Teschenites) found on a fossil field trip to Hauterivian, Early Cretaceous deposits in the Baetic Cordillera this past year. 

The Baetic Cordillera is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain along the southern and eastern Iberian Peninsula. There are several productive outcrops here that yield lovely Cretaceous ammonites and other marine species.

Neocomites are flucticulus a fast-moving nektonic carnivorous ammonite (Thieuloy, 1977) known from about a dozen offshore marine deep subtidal Cretaceous deposits in France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The photo and specimen you see here sharing a large boulder with a delicate heteromorph straight-shelled ammonite Bochianites are the first Neocomites I have seen come out of fossil deposits in Spain. It was found and prepped by the talented Manuel Peña Nieto of Córdoba, Spain.