Description
Genuine Witchellia glauca Ammonite Fossil
This listing is for a genuine Witchellia glauca ammonite fossil from the Inferior Oolite Group at Oborne Wood, Dorset, UK. Dating from the Bajocian Stage of the Middle Jurassic, this specimen represents a classic British Jurassic ammonite from one of southern England’s important fossil-bearing marine deposits.
Witchellia glauca is a desirable ammonite species for collectors who appreciate named fossils, precise geological provenance, and the rich ammonite faunas of the Middle Jurassic. This fossil is a carefully chosen piece, and the photograph shows the actual specimen you will receive. Full sizing can be seen in the photo.
Geology, Age and Dorset Locality
This ammonite comes from the Inferior Oolite Group, a well-known Middle Jurassic geological unit found across parts of Dorset and southern England. The Inferior Oolite is composed of limestones, sandy limestones, marls, shell beds, iron-rich layers, and oolitic sediments that formed in warm, shallow marine environments.
The fossil is Bajocian in age, approximately 170 to 168 million years old. The Bajocian was an important interval in ammonite evolution, with many distinctive ammonite groups appearing and diversifying in the shallow seas of Europe. Ammonites from this stage are particularly valuable in geology because their rapid evolution makes them useful for dating and correlating Jurassic marine rock layers.
Oborne Wood, near Sherborne in Dorset, is associated with fossil-bearing Middle Jurassic deposits of the Inferior Oolite Group. Fossils from this area are highly regarded by collectors of British ammonites because they preserve part of the rich marine ecosystem that existed in southern England during the Middle Jurassic.
Fossil Type and Species Details
Witchellia glauca was an ammonite, an extinct marine mollusc belonging to the cephalopod group. Ammonites are related to modern squid, cuttlefish, octopus, and nautilus, although ammonites themselves became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Like other ammonites, Witchellia possessed a coiled external shell divided internally into chambers. The living animal occupied the final body chamber, while the earlier chambers helped regulate buoyancy as it moved through the Jurassic sea.
The genus Witchellia is an important Middle Jurassic ammonite group associated with Bajocian marine faunas. Witchellia ammonites typically show planispiral coiling, well-developed whorls, and ribbed ornament that can vary from fine to more pronounced depending on the growth stage and preservation. The shell form is both attractive and scientifically useful, with features such as whorl shape, rib strength, and suture pattern helping palaeontologists identify and compare specimens.
Scientific classification places Witchellia within Phylum Mollusca, Class Cephalopoda, Subclass Ammonoidea, Order Ammonitida, Superfamily Hammatoceratoidea, and Family Sonniniidae. Witchellia glauca forms part of the diverse Bajocian ammonite succession and is closely linked with the classic Middle Jurassic ammonite faunas of Britain and western Europe.
Inferior Oolite Marine Environment
During the Bajocian, the area now known as Dorset lay beneath warm, shallow seas on the margin of an ancient European marine shelf. The sediments of the Inferior Oolite Group record these conditions through carbonate-rich deposits, oolitic limestones, shell beds, sandy layers, and marine muds. These environments supported a wide variety of Jurassic sea life.
Witchellia glauca would have lived in this marine setting as part of the active cephalopod fauna. Its chambered shell allowed buoyancy control, helping the animal move through the water column while feeding and avoiding predators. The same seas supported belemnites, bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods, echinoids, crustaceans, fish, and marine reptiles.
The Inferior Oolite Group is especially important for ammonite collectors because it preserves a detailed record of Middle Jurassic ammonite evolution. Fossils from this unit are not only attractive display pieces but also meaningful geological specimens, representing a time when ammonites were among the most successful and diverse animals in the world’s oceans.
Collectible British Jurassic Ammonite
This Witchellia glauca ammonite fossil is an excellent specimen for collectors interested in British fossils, Dorset geology, Middle Jurassic ammonites, Inferior Oolite fossils, and scientifically labelled natural history specimens. Its Oborne Wood locality, Bajocian age, named species identification, and classic ammonite form give it strong display and educational appeal.
This fossil is a genuine specimen and includes a Certificate of Authenticity lifetime guarantee generic card. The photograph shows the actual fossil you will receive, making this a carefully selected and accurately represented specimen from the Middle Jurassic marine deposits of Oborne Wood, Dorset, UK.
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