Staufenia sp. ammonite from Germany

A friend of mine, Roger, from Germany was in Canada visiting some of his family recently and I was able to meet up with him and do some trading. He primarily collects from his local Mesozoic exposures in southern and central Germany. I swapped some Trilobites with him and in return he gave me some Ammonites that he'd personally collected and prepped. This cut and polished specimen is a Staufenia sp. (possibly S.sinon or S.opalinoides). It is a beautiful specimen with some of the chambers filled with calcite crystals.

Back of the specimen

Some of the suture lines are visible through windows in the matrix.

This specimen came from near Scheffheu in the Wutach Valley of the Black Forest, Germany. As with most ammonites, it's stratigraphic position can be precisely placed. In this case it's the Staufensis Bank, Bradfordensis Zone, Achdorf Formation, Upper Aalenian, Middle Jurassic. This is the last of the specimens that I received from Roger and it seemed appropriate to end 2012 with these beautiful fossils. If the Mayan calender turns out to be wrong I have many more fossils to blog about in 2013!

Happy New Year!