Cryptic crossword clue
Ancient sea-creatures with shells, say, paladins picked up 9

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word AMMONITES

I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
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Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Ancient sea-creatures" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case ancient sea-creatures = ammonites.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does AMMONITES mean?

AMMONITES noun
  1. Any of an extinct group of cephalopods of the subclass Ammonoidea; a fossil shell of such an animal.

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