Ammonites were free-swimming mollusks of the ancient oceans, living around the same time that the dinosaurs walked the Earth and disappearing during the same extinction event. Ammolite comes from the placenticeras ammonite fossil, but is extremely rare. This particular mollusk inhabited a shallow sea that covered southern Alberta, Canada between 70-135 million years ago. While various types of ammonites can be found all over the world, it is only in southern Alberta is where the shells fossilized into the bright colours of ammolite.
Ammolite is now the official gemstone of Alberta and unfortunately, the only deposit of ammolite is beginning to run dry, and fewer pieces of quality ammolite are being found each year. Once the mine runs out of ammolite, it will no longer be found.