is a fossilized shell which shows a rainbow of shifting interference colors in beautiful mosaic type patterns it is formed from the mineralized remains of an upper Cretaceous fossil called the Ammonite Placenticeras (http://www.ammolite.com/faq.htm) the gemstone material is formed from the compacted remains of the shell which was exposed to eons of elemental movement, mineralization, intense heat and pressure. (http://www.ammolite.com/faq.

AA - highest grade displaying three or more brilliant sharp colours; also considered to be a collection grade - found most often in one of a kind designer pieces

by law, intact fossils cannot be broken for specimens, and each pit mine must be filled and reclaimed before another pit mine can be opened

it is based on the intensity of the colors of fire with reds, yellows, oranges, golds and greens the most common colors

the thin aragonite layer of the ammonite shell is often assembled into triplets with a protective quartz top and a shale backing

exposed ammonite which is easily bleached by the sun and damaged by frost is usually of poor quality (http:/www.ammonite.net/history1.htm)

The ammonite would have had to die close to the shoreline of the Bearpaw Sea, near an inflow of fresh water. The water somehow changed the chemistry of the shell, possibly depositing iron on it, which accounts for the greens in the stone. The shell would then have had to been crushed after burial.

Legend tells of a blackfoot woman who discovered the stone while searching for firewood. During a particularly harsh winter, the buffalo had disappeared and the tribe was starving. While searching in the deep snow, the young women heard beautiful singing and followed the voice to an ammolite stone under a cottonwood tree. The stone told her it was powerful medicine and if she would take it back to the tribe it would provide food for the blackfoot.

the process that turns a fossil shell into ammolite is not clearly understood, but the result is similar to opal (http://www.islandnet.com/~mineral/jewel6.htm) brilliant patterns of color occur when tiny spherules on the surface split white light, in the same way a rainbow does (http://www.islandnet.com/~mineral/jewel6.htm)