The ammonite slab

At the heart of the Haute-Provence Geopark, the ammonite slab was listed among the 2022 most beautiful international geological heritage sites in 100. Covering 350 m², 1 fossilized ammonite shells, the largest of which measure 550 cm in diameter, never cease to amaze.

This site is extraordinary and leaves visitors who stop there speechless. To understand the emergence of this seabed, we must go back to the “Lias” (Lower Jurassic). Our region is then under the waters where pentacrines (which will give rise to the famous Starfish of Saint-Vincent), grypheas (cousins ​​of oysters) and various other shellfish live. Above swim nautiluses, ammonites and belemnites, predated by marine reptiles (including the famous ichthyosaur of La Robine, or that of La Melaie).
After the animals died, the shells settled and were then covered by sediment and fossilized. Much later, the formation of the Alps raised this seabed and subjected it to erosion, giving us this extraordinary photograph, dated to 198 million years ago. Digne-les-Bains' Japanese twin town, Kamaïshi, has a life-size cast.