1.43" Chalcedony Replaced Gastropod With Druzy Quartz - India

This is a stunning chalcedony replaced gastropod fossil from Betul, India. This specimen has been polished to reveal the once hollow cavity of the shell that has been filled with a pocket of beautiful druzy quartz crystals. It has also been cut flat on the back side so that it displays nicely on a flat surface.

These gastropod fossils are reportedly Cretaceous in age though I have not been able to determine anymore information about them.

Gastropods, or snails, have been around since the Late Cambrian period. The class Gastropoda contains a vast total of named species, second only to the insects in overall number. There are 611 known families of gastropods, of which 202 families are extinct and appear only in the fossil record.

Quartz is the name given to silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich environments--usually igneous rocks or hydrothermal environments like geothermal waters--at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. In either case, crystals will precipitate as temperatures cool, just as ice gradually forms when water freezes. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountain formation: these veins can be hundreds of millions of years old.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Unknown
LOCATION
Betul, Central India
SIZE
1.43" long
CATEGORY
ITEM
#166276
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