Description

Simplicioceras centrale
Nautiloid
Early Eocene
London Clay
Isle of Sheppey, England

Very rare 16mm nautiloid.

Cephalopod.

Simplicioceras is a genus of extinct nautiloid known from the Eocene of various parts of Europe. It’s one of the smaller nautiloid genera of the London Clay but that also means it tends to be more complete when found than the larger ones.  It is almost always found pyritized.

Cenozoic nautiloids are found in many parts of the world but they are rare finds where they occur.  They managed to survive the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous and diversified in the early Cenozoic before going into decline by the Late Miocene.  Today, only a few species survive in Indo-Pacific waters.

It’s a rare enough specimen but the metallic look makes a must-have for the collector looking for oddball cephalopods.