Rhodochrosite in fossilized Snail (Jaime Bird Coll.)

Item Description

This UNIQUE and VERY SHOWY specimen features a well-placed vug lined with pastel-pink rhodochrosite and rhodochrosite botryoids in a fossilized snail shell from the famous Kerch Peninsula of the Ukraine, near the Black Sea. The entire interior of the vug is rhodochrosite and the botryoids look like eggs in a nest! This deposit is now mined through and gone. The calcium and manganese needed to form this species are both derived from the original shell material. Very hard to obtain in good specimens today, such as this. Valued $300-500.