Impact-shattered fossil belemnite from Germany. (2.5 cm across)

This remarkable fossil has been shattered by an impact event. The fossil itself is a Jurassic-aged belemnite. Belemnites are an extinct group of squids that had a solid, calcareous, bullet-shaped, internal skeleton called a guard. Notice the closely-spaced transverse fractures in this guard, some of which have small-scale fault offset. This deformation was produced by a large impact event in Bavaria, Germany. The crater still exists - it is called the Ries Impact Crater. It has a 24 kilometer diameter and was formed by collision of an achondrite impactor (= stony meteorites that lack a chondritic texture; see: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/sets/72157645633038357/">www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/sets/72157645633038357/</a> ). The Ries Impact occurred during the mid-Miocene, at about 14.5 to 14.8 million years ago. This is the same age as the Steinheim Impact Crater, which is located east of Stuttgart in southern Germany.

The Ries Impact is also famous for producing greenish-colored tektites called moldavites (see: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/14609742880">www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/14609742880</a> ).

Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Cephalopoda, Coleoidea, Belemnitida

Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near the Ries Impact Crater, Bavaria, southeastern Germany

See info. at: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belemnitida" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belemnitida</a> and