Belemnite

“ The American cretaceous sands abound in a species of Belemnitella, nearly related to B. mucronata.
2. Belemnites Listeri. Lign. 142, fig. 3.—This small elegant Belemnite has two lateral grooves, and is generally as transparent as amber; it has frequently a nacreous or calcareous pellicle partially investing the guard. It seldom exceeds two inches in length. It is abundant in, and peculiar to, the Galt, or blue marl of the Chalk, and is constantly associated with the Inocerami, previously described as common at Folkstone, Bletchingley, Ringmer, and other localities of that deposit. ”

“ I found that no specimen had been obtained in which the phragmocone, or terminal chambered part of the Belemnoteuthis (of Pearce) , was situated in the alveolus of a Belemnite; but Professor Owen having assumed that the osselet of the former must have originally been protected by a rostrum, or guard, described the soft parts as belonging to the animal of the Belemnite, conceiving that the phragmocone of the Belemnoteuthis was that of a Belemnite that had slipped out of the guard. ”

“ This attachment to other bodies no way incommodes them, because they increase the dimensions of their shells by adding fresh laminæ inwardly: the first formed laminæ, being, as it were, excluded, lie in the manner of tiles upon the roof of a house, and exhibit the several steps or stages of their growth.
I believe a Belemnite is very rarely found perfect in the fossil state: those in gravel-beds [27] have suffered very much by being rubbed against stones, &c. ”

“ The margin of the horny plates, interposed between the calcareous plates of the shield and cup of the Sepiostaire, (Pl. 44', Fig. 4, e, e', e′′, e.,) represents the horny marginal cavity of the cone of the Belemnite, beyond the base of its hollow calcareous cone, (Pl. 44' Fig. 7, e. e'. e′′.) This horny sheath of the Belemnite was probably formed by the prolongation of the horny laminæ which were interposed between its successive cones of fibro-calcareous matter. ”

“ Each of these specimens contains an ink-bag within the anterior portion of the sheath of a perfect Belemnite; and we are henceforth enabled with certainty to refer all species of Belemnites to a family in the class of Cephalopods, for which I would, in concurrence with M. Agassiz propose the name of Belenmo-sepia. Such ink-bags are occasionally found in contact with traces of isolated alveoli of Belemnites: they are more frequently surrounded only by a thin plate of brilliant nacre. ”

“ Some [p.210] few are of species common to the inferior white chalk, among which may be mentioned Belemnites mucronatus (see fig. 197.) and Pecten quadricostatus. Besides the Belemnite there are other genera, such as Ammonite, Baculite, and Hamite, never found in strata newer than the cretaceous, but frequently met with in these Maestricht beds. On the other hand, Volutes and other genera of univalve shells, usually met with only in tertiary strata, occur. ”

“ Figure X. represents the Belemnite split up the middle, with the siphunculus in the front: a, b exhibit the first formed cell, or seat of the animal ab ovo. As the animal grows larger, it forms a second cell or chamber b to c, at the same time covers the first cell, by forming theappendage or guard c, i, which is the first stage of the Belemnite. In forming the third cell c, d, fresh laminæ or coverings are carried on from d, to k; and so of the rest, e, f, g, h; or l, m, n, o. When we have duly considered the manner, in which the shell is thus formed ”

“ In every part of Europe belemnites and stone hatchets are alike regarded as thunderbolts; so that we have the curious result that people confuse under a single name a natural fossil of immense antiquity and a human product of comparatively recent but still prehistoric date. Indeed, I have had two thunderbolts shown me at once, one of which was a large belemnite, and the other a modern Indian tomahawk. ”

“ Belemnites. These, according to M. De France, are different from those which accompany the ammonites of the compact limestone. The belemnites of our chalk are smaller than those of the limestone, besides which they are different in form, being narrower and more elongated. But M. De France may also have confounded with them the spines of the echinus, which so closely resemble the belemnites if that gentleman should trot have met with perfect specimens, he might not be able to remark the difference between these two fossils. ”

“ The chambered alveolus of the Belemnite is represented by the congeries of thin transverse plates, (Pl. 44', Fig. 4, b.) which occupy the interior of the shallow cup of Sepiostaire, (e. e'.) ; these plates are composed of horny matter, penetrated with carbonate of lime.
The hollow spaces between them, (Fig. 5, b, b',) which are nearly a hundred in number in the full grown animal, act as air-chambers to make the entire shell permanently lighter than water; but there is no siphuncle to vary the specific gravity of this shell ”

“ But the accidental discovery of Belemnites in due connection with black elongated masses which were certainly fossilised ink-bags, inasmuch as the ink could be ground up and used for painting as well as if it were recent sepia, settled the question; and it became perfectly safe to prophesy that the creature which fabricated the Belemnite was a two-gilled cephalopod with suckers on its arms, and with all the other essential features of our living squids, cuttle-fishes, and Spirulæ. ”

“ Among the innumerable relics of an earlier world, which swarm in the sedimentary deposits, there are perhaps no fossil bodies that have excited more curiosity, and given rise to so many fruitless conjectures as to their nature and origin, as the Belemnites. ”

“ To a geologist accustomed in England to regard rolled pebbles of chalk-flint as a common and distinctive feature of tertiary beds of different ages, it is a new and surprising phenomenon to behold strata made up of such materials, and yet to feel no doubt that they were accumulated in a sea in which the belemnite and other cretaceous mollusca flourished. ”

“ Their fossil remains consist of the external shell and the internal osselet; and in the naked tribes, of the soft parts of the body, the ink-bag, &c., as noticed in the account of the Belemnite and Belemnoteuthis.
The shell varies exceedingly in the different genera. In the group characterised by smooth septa, and a medial or submedial siphuncle, as the Nautilus, the earliest or most ancient type is straight, as in the Orthoceras (Plate LVIII. fig. 14) of the palæozoic formations ”

“ The Belemnitic shell presents the same arrangement of its constituent layers as the Pearl-mussel, Pinna, and other Aviculidæ, viz. the outer layer is prismatic-cellular, the inner nacreous: the first is formed by the free margin of the mantle, the second by the visceral ("peritoneal") part of the mantle.—Mr. Woodward.
From the obvious analogy of the structure above demonstrated with that of the recent dibranchiate Cephalopoda, several eminent naturalists inferred that the animal of the Belemnite was closely related to the existing types ”

“ I have, under the head, "Belemnites," explained somewhat fully the nature of those fossils which, by the name of "thunderbolts," have for so many centuries excited the interest and perplexed the ingenuity of collectors of fossil remains. Referring the reader to that note, I shall therefore in this place merely give such specific names of the specimens figured by Mr. Parkinson as I have been able to determine.
Fig. 8. "A Belemnite of large size," Mr. Parkinson. This specimen is part of the phragmocone from near the lower apical portion, partially invested with the fibrous rostrum or guard. ”

“ In the Lias and Oolite Nautili abound, and we meet for the first time with Belemnites. The same families, viz. Nautilidæ, Ammonitidæ, and Belemnitidæ, prevail throughout the Cretaceous strata. The Tertiary formations contain a few Nautilidæ only; no vestiges of the Ammonitidæ and true Belemnitidæ, which, as we have seen, swarmed in the ancient seas, are perceptible, while in the existing oceans, the Nautilus and Spirula are the sole representatives of the numerous shell-bearing cephalopoda of the ancient geological eras. ”

“ Belemnitella mucronata. Lign. 141, fig. 1.—The name Belemnitella is given to those Belemnites which have a slit, or crevice, on the anterior margin of the alveolus or cavity, and two lateral impressions. The surface is sometimes granulated, and often has vascular markings, produced by the investing integument of the living animal. The form of the aperture is shown in the middle dextral figure; and the radiated structure, as seen by a transverse section, in the sketch.
This species is abundant in the White Chalk, particularly « 458 » in certain localities in Norfolk and Devonshire. ”

“ The belemnites are the internal shells of a sort of cuttle-fish which swam about in enormous numbers in the seas whose sediment forms our modern lias, oolite, and gault. A great many different species are known and have acquired charming names in very doubtful Attic at the hands of profoundly learned geological investigators, but almost all are equally good representatives of the mythical thunderbolt. ”

“ But when we bring them to chemical tryal, the objection vanishes; for the bones either come out of the furnace with a black core, or they are reduced to ashes; whereas the Belemnite is changed into a fine calx, after the manner of all testaceous bodies, and is converted into a species of phosphorus [26] . The oisters, having no loco-motion, frequently affix themfelves to other bodies, that they may be better able to stem the tides, and currents, which might otherwise carry them from their proper beds, and places of feeding. ”

“ Belemnites. Straight, conical; septa simple; siphon lateral; apex solid; internal cast, or nucleus, pyramidal, separable. Fig. 466 to 468.
6. Conilites. Like Belemnites, but external shell thin at the apex. Fig. 470.
ORTHOCERATA. Bl. The first family of Polythalamacea, Bl. containing the genera Belemnites, Conularia, Conilites, Orthoceras and Baculites. De Blainville remarks that the genera included in this family are all fossils, and known very imperfectly, in consequence of the greater part of the specimens being only casts.
ORTHOCERATITES. Auct. Fam. Orthocerata, Lam. ”

“ In this there are no corals, but great abundance of cephalopoda of the genera Ammonite and Belemnite. (See fig. 277.) In some of the clay of very fine texture ammonites are very perfect, although somewhat compressed, and are seen to be furnished on each side of the aperture with a single horn-like projection (see fig. 278.) . These were discovered in the cuttings of the Great Western Railway, near Chippenham, in 1841, and have been described by Mr. Pratt. [262-A]
Fig. ”

“ In all other respects also, except the manner in which they are coiled up, they resemble Ammonites; their interior being divided into numerous chambers by transverse plates, which are foliated at their edges, and pierced by a siphuncle, near the dorsal margin. (Pl. 44, Fig. 14, a, a.) The outer chamber is large. ↑ The lowest stratum in which Belemnites are said to have been found is the Muschelkalk, and the highest the upper Chalk of Maestricht. ”

“ Some of them will turn out a disappointment; the belemnites and the amalekites and such will be failures, and they will die out and become extinct in the course of the nineteen million years covered by the experiment; but all is not lost, for the amalekites will develop gradually into encrinites and stalactites and blatherskites, and one thing and another, as the mighty ages creep on and the periods pile their lofty crags in the primordial seas, and at last the first grand stage in the preparation of the world for man stands completed; the oyster is done. ”

“ The two-gilled race, starting in the Secondary rocks, and leaving the extinct belemnites as a legacy to the past, have, on the other hand, flourished and progressed, and attain their maximum, both in size and numbers, in the existing seas and oceans of our globe. ”

“ Who can contend that both stories may not have had their origin in one and the same phenomenon? ↑ Here it should be remarked that Fig. 2, representing several identical reliefs, has ten arms or tentacles, five on each side of an upright spear-shaped projection. It has been suggested (Edward Lovett) that one pair of these arms is intended for horns, and that the central straight device "is an exact representation of the Belemnite, i.e. the 'Bone' of the fossil Cephalopods." Fig. 3 has but eight arms without horns, while the central object is like the bone of the common cuttle-fish. ”

“ Certain genera of ammonites, Haploceras, Lytoceras, Phylloceras, rare in the north, are common in the south; and the southern facies is further characterized by the peculiar group of swollen belemnites (Dumontia) , by the gasteropods Actionella, Nerinea, &c., and by reef-building corals. The southern facies is far more widespread and typical of the period than is the chalk; it not only covers all southern Europe, but spreads eastwards far into Asia and round the Mediterranean basin into Africa. ”

“ Their evidence, however, runs in exactly the same tract with that of the shorter list. He had been told at Banff that the clay contained "petrified tangles;" and the first organism shown him by the workmen, on his arrival at the deposit, were some of the "tangles" in question. "These" he goes on to say, "we found, as may have already been anticipated, to be pieces of Belemnites, well known on the other side of the Frith as 'thunderbolts,' and esteemed of sovereign efficacy in the cure of bewitched cattle." ”