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| An internal mold of an ammonite chamber. Left, lateral view, right, apertural view |
Two views of an internal mold of one of the chambers from the phragmocone of an ammonite (Prionocyclus macombi Meek 1876). The chamber was hollow and probably filled with gas and a little liquid while the animal was alive, and was probably empty of any solids after it died. How long it sat empty on the seafloor, and while it was being buried under sediment is unknown. Eventually, it was filled with what we have here, dark sparry calcite crystals. I imagine the crystals grew from the inner walls of the chamber towards the center until it was completely filled. You can see the siphuncle at the top of the chamber (the keel here is missing), and on the bottom, in the apertural view, you can see a notch where the keel of the preceding whorl would have fit.
Ammonites preserved in limestone or concretions are more often found this way because the surrounding shell was preserved uncrushed as the matrix around the shell hardened. Those found in sandstone or shale many times have the phragmocone and most of the chambers crushed unless the chambers were filled with sediment.
