The irresistible adventure> Superlatives
Day 1: Along the waters of the Bes
alt_route Step 2 / Ammonite slab
Ammonites are the emblematic fossils of Digne and its surroundings. The site of the ammonite slab is remarkable for its size and the density of fossils: there are 1 ammonites!
The history of this slab dates back to the end of the Triassic period (- 210 million years ago), when shallow marine waters gradually covered the region of the Alps, then continental and relatively flat. The alpine sea settles and 60 Ma later, in the Jurassic, the sea populated by ammonites deepens. Throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, ammonites diversify and evolve into a multitude of species. However, on the Dalle aux Ammonites, only one species is represented! Astonishing!
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The Ammonites
Cephalopod molluscs (like the dry, nautilus and octopus), they have a shell coiled in a spiral. Partitioned, it serves as their float. Nautilus still exist today. Ammonites, on the other hand, disappeared 66 million years ago.
The ammonites which populated all the seas of the Secondary Era disappeared with the end of this one, 65 Ma ago. Remarkable for the great variety of their forms, their ornamentation, they are excellent temporal indices allowing to date the rock layers.
These fossils have been studied since Roman times. Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist who lived between 23 and 79 AD, describes them as the horn of Ammon (hence the name "ammonites"), one of the most important gods of the Ancient Egypt. Ammon is often depicted as a ram or as a man with a ram's head.