#belemnitida

[sinasinasinas]

Random extinct cephalopods

[mirt-minerals-blog]

[mirt-minerals-blog]

[plantaeee]

Opalized Belemnitida

Opal Fields, Coober Pedy, South Australia

[heckyeahpaleozoology]

Belemnitida

Belemnites were squid-like mollusks that lived from the early Jurassic Period until the late Cretaceous. Unlike squids, they possessed ten arms of equal length with sharp, curved hooks that were used for grasping prey, but no tentacles, and also had a hard internal skeleton, which is absent in modern cephalopods. Belemnite fossils are typically the remains of the rostrum, the large, bullet-shaped portion of this skeleton.

Fossils that preserve the soft parts of belemnite bodies show ink sacs, large and well-developed eyes, and powerfully muscular arms, indicating that they were incredible swimmers, just like squids.

Belemnitida went extinct about 70 mya.