Parapuzosia seppenradensis, giant ammonite discovered in 1895

 

The largest known specimen of ammonite, Parapuzosia seppenradensis (Cretaceous, 80 Ma), measures 1.74 m and was discovered in 1895 in a quarry close to Lüdinghausen-Seppenrade.

 

In the photograph, it figures with the zoologist who described it, Hermann Landois, who reconstructed its missing chamber with wire and paper. Landois assumed that the chamber constituted a quarter of the outer whorl, estimating it measured 2.55 m, but Teichert and Kummel (1960) estimated it would have ¾ of a whorl, with an original diameter of around 3.5 m.

 

It is exhibited in the lobby of the LWL Natural History Museum in Münster (Germany). There are copies at the Georg Agricola Technical University (THGA) in Bochum; in Seppenrade, Germany; at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley; in La Plata; and in other museums around the world. Another ammonite of the genus Parapuzosia is in the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, Bulgaria, with a diameter of 1.44 meters.

 

It has been speculated that the simultaneous growth in the size of mosasaurs, the dominant predators of the Cretaceous seas, may have exerted evolutionary pressure that caused Parapuzosia to increase in size to make predation more difficult (Frim, Stinnesbeck, González González, Schorndorf & Gale, 2021).

A specimen of Lytoceras taharoaense (Upper Jurassic, G.R. Stevens, 1985) measures 1.42 meters in diameter and weighs 1,200 kilograms. It was discovered in 1977 on the Waikato coast (North Island of New Zealand), next to a road. It is on display at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Another notable giant (Titanites occidentalis) was found by geologists in 1947, in a stream in British Columbia (Canada). Nicknamed the "fossil truck tire," it measures 1.37 m. Upper Jurassic, Tithonian (149-145 Ma).

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Mountainside Ammonite Fossil Hike (BC, Rocky Mountains) (01:39)

https://youtu.be/BaIAMcp9vsY?si=HDegZepLAljKZBXu&t=59s

Amonita gigante - Tales from Te Papa (03:01)

https://youtu.be/teYVYbo0Ac8?si=Wn7hcLNR1IJf-pZ6&t=39s

Paläontologisches Museum Hamburg (01:23)

https://youtu.be/Zv7tTzIbNaI?si=C7mkNXVukwStHOHv