A BLAZE OF COLOR IN A SPINY DRESS?

If you look at the bizarre shapes of today’s reef dwellers, you will notice that spiny individuals are often brightly colored. Danger beware! Stay away from me! I am spiny!

But what color might this extremely unpleasantly spiny ammonite have been?

We don’t know. But let’s try to imagine this spiny monster floating above the seabed in the brightest of colors.

This idea is not entirely unrealistic, on the contrary. What a sight such a colorful spiny ammonite must have been! Or was the ammonite simply gray? Or did it have camouflage colors adapted to its habitat? Was it able to adapt its color patterns to its surroundings at lightning speed, as some of today’s squid are still able to do? This can be ruled out, however, as the ammonite did not have a soft body with a blood supply that would have surrounded the outside of the shell.