Some fossils of long-extinct sea creatures display brilliant rainbow colors. Known as ammolite, these gems come from the fossilized shells of ammonites, squid-like marine animals that vanished with ...

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At the end of the Paleocene and beginning of the Eocene epochs, between 59 to 51 million years ago, Earth experienced dramatic warming periods, both gradual periods stretching millions of years and ...

Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on ...

Ammolite is a rare kind of gemstone, valued for its vibrant iridescent colors, which shift rapidly between red, green, and blue hues. The most famous specimens come from the curled shells of ammonites ...

Skeleton season may be just around the corner, but the skeleton age dawned with the early Cambrian Period, about 538 million to 506 million years ago. In this time span, most major animal groups ...

Examples of Lapworthella fasciculata shells (under scanning electron microscope) from the Mernmerna Formation, Flinders Ranges, South Australia, showing holes made by a perforating predator. Scale ...