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| Lower Jurassic Belemnites, Photo: Georg Laki |
Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone and it is this hard part that we often find fossilized.
The parts are, from arms to tip: the tongue-shaped pro-ostracum, the conical phragmocone, and the pointy guard.
When you find these as fossils, it is not intuitive as to what kind of animal they came from. This is the internal hard part of a rather soft, squishy squid-like fellow.
Because the softer bits are often scavenged and decay, we rarely see them fossilized. Instead, we get what looks like a pointy selection of cigar-shaped goodies that are all that is left of these marine cephalopods.
We find this fossil in many places around the world. Some friends shared where they have personally found them which I thought might be of interest to you. Arno Martini has found them in northern California, Anne Glenn finds them in Wyoming, Marco Valentin has an enviable collection from Hannover, Misburg, Germany, Juanjo Ugalde Robledo finds them in La Rioja, Spain, Barbara Hnb finds them in Normandy, Patrick Buster finds them in the Navesink Formation of New Jersey, Kim Pervis shared a monograph on Mississippian Belemnites by Rousseau. |
| Anatomy of a Belemnite Fossil |
Other notable finds are from Scott Carpenter and his daughter who collect them on the Jurassic Coast, Gabriel Santos who collects them in Peniche, Portugal and Rossi Franco shared a belemnite he found in the building materials used to construct the Bank of Italy in Genoa.
There are also some wonderfully preserved plates of multiple Jurassic belemnites from Mistelgau, Germany you may want to take a boo at. Imagine slate grey to honey brown Youngibelus and Paxillosus clusters on a beige matrix. Quite stunning.
I have found them around British Columbia, as has Lloyd Rempel, including at Harrison Lake, British Columbia, Canada.
