Fossil specimen of an ammonite (circa 150 million years old).
Very few Ammonite fossils have been found with remains of food inside them but from the evidence available it seemed they were carnivores (meat eaters), eating fish, other molluscs and plankton.It caught its food with its tentacles and it had a strong mouth capable of crushing shell. Tooth marks found on some fossil shells of Ammonites indicate that they were preyed upon by marine reptiles. Because it was not very wide and had a sharp edge it offered little resistance to the water. This made it one of the fastest moving Ammonites. It propelled itself backwards through the water with squid like tentacles that came out of its shell. The spiral shell was divided into chambers and the creature lived only in the outermost chamber. The other chambers were filled with gas or water to control buoyancy, rather like a submarine.
