Ammonites and nautiloids.
Image: Simon Hinkley
Source: Museum Victoria
New Discovery Centre display is 380 million years in the making.
Following hot on the heels of the recently-departed display of hatching Triceratops eggs, Discovery Centre at Melbourne Museum is now featuring some beautiful Moroccan nautiloids and ammonites.
Dating from 380 million years ago, these marine fossils have been polished and mounted in a slab of the rock in which they were found.
Ammonites and nautiloids are cephalopods, being related to squid, octopii and cuttlefish. In both, the shell’s interior is divided into chambers by septa. The septa of nautiloids tend to be simple, with a straight or slightly curved margin, whereas the septa of ammonites have complex wavy margins.
The largest nautiloid fossil found so far measures about 8 feet in length, which is somewhat larger than ours. Nautiloids are represented today by species such as the pearly nautilus, while ammonites became extinct approximately 65 million years ago.
Visit Melbourne Museum's Discovery Centre to see and touch these beautiful fossils for yourself.
Open daily between 10.00am and 4.30pm, Discovery Centre has a variety of resources on topics relevant to Museum Victoria’s collections and research, including display objects, publications, videos, DVDs and electronic resources.