Ammonites They were sea creatures that lived before and at the same time as dinosaurs. They were a bit like a modern or octopus squid with a shell. Ammonite fossils have been found worldwide. Fossils resemble a curled snake, and for a while, people thought they were snake remains, which earned them the nickname Snakestones!
The ammonites made additional cameras in their shell as they grew up, which gave the shell a different spiral form.
How did the ammonites swam?
The hollow internal chambers of the peel of an ammonite helped them float and control their flotability. The ammonites had a sifunculus system that allowed them to spread the gas inside and outside the empty housing to change their flotability. Only the outermost chamber housed the soft body.
They threw water to push themselves. Modern cephalopods (octopus, squid, sepia and nautilus) use this same method of jet propulsion to move.
When did the ammonites live?
It is believed that the ammonitas appeared for the first time about 400 million years ago and extinguished about 66 million years ago during the same extinction event that killed non -avios dinosaurs and many other species of animals and plants on earth.
What did the ammonites ate?
It is believed that ammonites have eaten plankton and small crustaceans and were eaten by dinosaurs such as Mosasaurus, Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.
Ammonite fossils
The ammonites were greatly abundant in the ocean for a long time, so fossils They are abundant. Scientists use the number and type of ammonite fossils found in a particular layer of rock to date in other fossils in the same layer. They are known as index fossils.
Ammonite fossils are in the Navy Sedimentary rock. If you are in the United Kingdom, Lyme Regis in Dorset is a good place to hunt ammonites.
Ammonite research
How did the ammonites control their buoyancy?
The soft body of an ammonite only lived in the outermost section of its housing. The other cameras were sealed as the ammonite grew and used to control its flotability.
The ammonitas had a Soric system which allowed them to spread the gas inside and out of the empty housing to change their flotability. The sifunculus also came out of water from empty cameras as the body grew.
We can demonstrate how to change the density of the ammonite cover would have changed its flotability with a simple demonstration.
You will need
A bottle or a large bottle
Small test tube with jet or air lid
Buttons, plasticine or other small object
Water
Instructions
Fill the bottle or bottle almost to the top with water. The bottle must be deep enough for the test tube to be completely covered with water when submerged.
Place the empty test tube with the lid on the jar. It must float on the surface of the water. The test tube represents an ammonite.
Add buttons or plasthed to the test tube until it begins to dive under the surface of the water.
Add some water to the test tube that contains buttons and observe what happens. You must find the position of the test tube in the water changes the more water adds.
Continue adding more water to the test tube until it sinks to the bottom.
When adding water, the density of the test tube is changing. When the test tube density is greater than the density of the water in which it is placed, the test tube will sink.
When water is added to the test tube, its complete density changes, which means that its position in the water changes. This is how ammonites control their buoyancy. The sifunculus came out of water from the newly empty cameras and gases to allow the ammonites to float at the level they wanted.
More about Los Ammonitas
Discover how X -rays revealed what the ammonitas ate.
Read about him Inspirator Mary Anning and make an ammonite of clay.
Last update on June 29, 2023 by Emma Vanstone
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