From a trip to Lyme Regis.

There’s a lot of other places where you can read about ammonites on the Internet as they’re one of the Mesozoic Era’s most famous animals. That says a lot as dinosaurs are primarily the ones associated with this period in Earth’s history.

Near Lyme Regis, ammonite fossils are abundant in the rocks along the coast, leading one to get seriously exhausted from being constantly awed by their beautiful structures. Many other awe-inspiring fossils from this stretch of coast have been found including of huge marine vertebrates, other molluscs and fish – all of them alive around 200 million years ago.

Fun fact: Ammonites became extinct simultaneously with the non-bird dinosaurs. But right before they disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous 66 million years ago, fossil records have shown that they were thriving at the time.

So, success is great, but it doesn’t mean you’re prepared for everything. Understandably, few organisms would be prepared for ten kilometre wide rocks crashing in from space.

References:

Sessa J.A. et al., 2015. Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Vol. 112 (51), p. 15562-15567. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1507554112

Page K. N., 2008. The evolution and geography of Jurassic ammonoids. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. Vol. 119 (1), p. 35-57. doi: 10.1016/S0016-7878(08)80257-X.

www.bgs.ac.uk/map-viewers/bgs-geology-viewer