ONCE IN A LIFETIME

Lifting up chunks of stone – inspecting them all around – throwing them away. Stefan has been digging through the rubble from the last blast in the quarry for hours. Every now and then he makes a pretty good find – not a bad day. Suddenly – the hand with the piece of rock is already reaching out to throw it over his shoulder – his breath is taken away: a broad ammonite ridge runs sideways across the rock! But that’s not all: two spines, still firmly attached to the rock, are clearly sticking up from the ammonite. The extremely experienced finder reacts immediately: “Stop – where is the adjacent piece of rock? – The tips of the spines should still be there! And he knows: this is perhaps the best find of his life – and probably the most spectacular ammonite ever found in Bavaria!

But then he takes his time. After weeks of unimaginably concentrated work in front of the microscope, he extracts the unique find from the rock. Apart from two spines, everything is there – the ammonite is perfectly preserved right down to the innermost coil.