Sixty-six million years ago squid-like creatures with sharp, beak-like jaws, tentacles, and a spiral shell like a nautilus thrived in prehistoric inland tropical seas known as the Bearpaw sea—bordering the eastern slopes of today’s Rocky Mountains. These cephalopods went extinct with the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic era. When they died, they sank to the bottom of the seas and were buried by layers of mud that combined with aragonite and preserved them as fossil shells. In a very small area of Southern Alberta, Canada, these shells have turned into gemstones.
Opal-like and iridescent, their spectral color comes from interference with light as it rebounds from the stacked layer of the thin platelets that make up the aragonite. The thicker the layers, the more reds and greens. This is the most common form of ammolite. Occasionally, a specimen has thinner layers, which produces the rarer blues and violets. Reminiscent of the Golden Spiral, a key part of sacred geometry, ammolites are said to hold the energies and vibrations of the universe.
A stone of perfection, ammolite brings about personal awakening, prosperity, and luck. It is best for those who need steadiness, structure, and grounding in their lives.