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Ammonites were a type of marine mollusk that existed during the Devonian to Cretaceous eras (400-65 million years ago), having spiral coiled shells. Small ones found in rock shops can often be irridescent. The Fernie ammonite is located in a gully up the mountainside outside of Fernie, British Columbia & is known to be one of the largest known fossil ammonites in the world, being nearly 1.5 metres across & over 150 million years old. It was discovered in July 1947 by a student of Chuck Newmarch of the British Columbia Geological Survey. Upon venturing up the creek searching for coal seams they had spotted it & thought it was a fossilized truck tire until further analysis revealed it as an ammonite, scientific name Titanites occidentalis. While large portions of it are missing & close-up details are relatively poor, it remains a fascinating sight particularly in relative size to a person. In more recent years a few other large ammonites have been found though this one remains the first discovery as it sits at an angle in the matrix high in a coniferous forest, an extreme contrast to when the organism was once alive at the bottom of the ocean floor.
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The Rocky Mountains (or Rockies) are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometres (2,980 mi) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401 m) above sea level. Though part of North America's Pacific Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges (as named in Canada) or Pacific Mountain System (as known in the United States), which are located immediately adjacent to the Pacific coast.The eastern edge of the Rockies rises impressively above the Interior Plains of central North America, including the Front Range of Colorado, the Wind River Range and Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Absaroka-Beartooth ranges and Rocky Mountain Front of Montana, and the Clark Range of Alberta. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges: the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges (the latter two flank the Peace River, the only river to pierce the Rockies, and are collectively referred to as the Northern Rockies). Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 3,954 metres (12,972 ft), is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies (the Mackenzie Mountains north of the Liard River are sometimes referred to as being part of the Rockies but this is an unofficial designation).The western edge of the Rockies includes subranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City and the Bitterroots along the Idaho-Montana border. The Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these subranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rockies do not extend into the Yukon or Alaska, or into central British Columbia, where the Rocky Mountain System (but not the Rocky Mountains) includes the Columbia Mountains, the southward extension of which is considered part of the Rockies in the United States. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region; the Rocky Mountain System is known in Canada as the Eastern System.
