Ammonites, Ammon I Tide

OF SNAKE-STONES, n. pl. [From Lat. Ammon or Jupiter, who was worshipped in Libya under the form of a ram, the A. having been at one time considered to be petrified ram's horns.] ( Pal.) Spiral fo il shells, of which there are a great abundance in Europe, Asia, and America, especially in the lias, chalk, and oölite formations. They appear like a snake rolled up; some are very small, but occasionally they are met with upward of three feet in diameter. In some places they are so numerous, that the rocks seem, as it were, composed of them alone. Upward of 200 species have been already described, and it appears that many of them were very widely distributed; some being found in the Him a lay an mountains, at the elevation of 16,000 feet, similar to species discovered in the oölite series of rocks in Europe. The nearest recent ally of this extinct fam, of Mollusca is supposed to be the Spirula, q. v. Fig. 111. AMMONITE OF BAYEUX.