Description

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

Very rare 24mm nautiloid.

Cephalopod.

Simplicioceras is one of the smaller nautiloids of the London Clay.  It is often found pyritized there.

Cenozoic nautiloids are found in many parts of the world but tend to be uncommon 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 the Indo-Paciifc region and mostly in deeper water.