THE SPINY KING

When these ammonites with their thin and overlong spines sank to the sea floor after death, there must have been a soft, fine mud there into which the shells immediately sank and where the spines were secured from breaking off. This mud must also have solidified quickly around the ammonites, so that the pressure of further sediment deposited over the ammonites could no longer crush the shells.

185 million years later, however, it took over 150 hours of highly concentrated work and the use of state-of-the-art preparation techniques to free these four ammonites, perfectly preserved with their spines, from the hard rock under the microscope.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.