[f. mod.L. ammānītes (after ætītes, asphaltītes, etc.: see -ITE), f. by Bruguière on the med.L. name Cornu Ammonis ‘Ammon’s horn,’ given to these fossils from their resemblance to the involuted horn of Jupiter Ammon. At first used as L., with pl. Ammonitæ.]
1. A fossil genus of Cephalopods, consisting of whorled chambered shells, containing many species; once supposed to be coiled snakes petrified, and hence called Snake-stones. (Scott, Marmion, II. xiii.)
1758. Phil. Trans., L. 786. In this rock … the Ammonitæ, or Snake-stones, as they are commonly called, are found.
1798. trans. La Pérouse’s Voy. round World, III. 299. There existed a very close analogy between the ammonite and nautilus.
1816. W. Smith, Strata Ident., 1. The Muscles and Ammonites found in Ironstone.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, Prol. 15. Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., viii. 77. In a nodular mass of bluish-gray limestone … I laid open my first-found ammonite.
† 2. Formerly used for AMMTES, i.e., oolite. Obs.
1706. Phillips, Ammonites, a sort of stone call’d the lesser Spawn-stone.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Ammites is the same with what is otherwise called Ammonites.
