Early Miocene (Burdigalien)

Martillac Ditch Section

Gironde, Aquitaine, France

26mm partial nautiloid on 90mm slab. Mother of pearl is still preserved.  First we have ever had from France.

Nautiloid.  Cephalopod.

Aturia is a nautiloid genus known from the Paleocene to Miocene of various sites worldwide.

Cenozoic nautiloids are not often seen on the market though they are found in many parts of the world.  Nautiloids managed to survive the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous and diversified in the early Cenozoic before going into decline by the Late Miocene.  Today, only a few species survive in the Indo-Paciifc region and mostly in deeper water.