Belemnitella

Belemnitella; Temporal range: 84.9–66.043 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Order:	†Belemnitida
Family:	†
Genus:	†Belemnitella; d'Orbigny, 1840
Species
	Belemnitella bulbosa;

Belemnitella is a genus of belemnite from the Late Cretaceous of Europe and North America. Belemnitella was a squidlike animal, probably related to the ancestors of modern squids and cuttlefish. The shell was internal. The rostrum or guard is found the most often and possesses a distinctive slit at its ventral surface and a ridge on the dorsal surface. The phragmocone (internal shell) has a small protoconch at its tip, and fit into the cavity and the guard. It also had septa and a ventral siphuncle (tube filled with living tissues running through chambers) within the phragmocone, projecting forward as a beak-like blade.

It had growth layers like tree rings, seen within the cavity of the organism and when the cone is sectioned. The cone was light-brown and glassy in appearance. It is distributed widely in North America. A specimen of a belemnoid had been found in Germany, clearly preserving 10 tentacles as carbon films, showing that belemnoids are similar to squids.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Belemnitella americana, is the source of the Pee Dee Belemnite, reference standard in research.

References[]

^ Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 163)
^ National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fossils (Page 536)
^ Neal L. Larson; Steven D. Jorgensen; Robert A. Farrar & Peter L. Larson (1997). Ammonites and the Other Cephalopods of the Pierre Seaway. Geoscience Press, Inc. p. 94. ISBN 0-945005-34-2.

External links[]

Belemnitella in the Paleobiology Database

This prehistoric cephalopod-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

This article about a Cretaceous animal is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[1] Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 163)

[2] National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fossils (Page 536)

[larson-3] Neal L. Larson; Steven D. Jorgensen; Robert A. Farrar & Peter L. Larson (1997). Ammonites and the Other Cephalopods of the Pierre Seaway. Geoscience Press, Inc. p. 94. ISBN 0-945005-34-2.

[1]

[2]

[3]