![]() Ancestors of octopi and squid, ammonites used their tentacles to ensnare unsuspecting prey, much like their modern counterparts (there is also evidence to suggest some ammonites may have squirted ink to defend themselves against predators). These cephalopods shared the same extinction date as the dinosaurs (the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event), and were probably a food source for mosasaurs. But it was Greek myth that gifted the fossils with their famous name the coiled shell of this ancient marine mollusc resembled the horns of rams, therefore its remains were classified as ‘ammonites’, after the Greek ram god Ammon.Īmmonites lived in the seas near what are now the called the Mahajanga and Tulear regions of Madagascar, during the Lower Jurassic (163 million years ago) and Cretaceous (120 million years ago) periods. To many Hindus these stones are sacred, for they have the power to expel bad karma and cleanse people of sin before their death, enabling them to enter the afterlife. Worldwide, these rocks were reputed to have varying mythic qualities: in North America, Blackfoot tribes believed ‘buffalo stones’ had great ritualistic and medicinal importance, whilst in India, the fossils are still referred to as ‘Shaligrams’ (or ‘Saligrams’) and worshipped as representations of the Hindu God Vishnu. During the Saxon era in Whitby, Yorkshire, legend told of St Hilda’s magical ability to transform snakes into special stones.
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