Belemnites

Today I have been admiring our growing collection of Belemnite fossils. Don't panic, I haven't ben raiding sensitive natural sites - they have all been found in the cotswold stone gravel outside the house.

Where does the name Belemnite come from ?
Pronounced 'BEL-EM-NIGHT', the name is believed to have originally been derived from the Greek language word 'belemnon', which is today translated as meaning the name of an object that is shaped like a dart or a javelin.

When were they alive on Earth ?
The Belemnites were present on the Earth for a period spanning over 140 million years. They first appeared on Earth some 208 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. It is currently believed that they evolved from the same ancestors as the Ammonites. The Belemnites became extinct about the same time that the majority of the dinosaurs disappeared. This is believed to be at the end of the Cretaceous Period, some 65 million years ago, known in paleontology as the time of the K-T mass-extinction.

What did they look like in real life ?
Belemnites were marine animals that belonged to the classification of Phylum Mollusca, today you would find their still living relatives, the squid and cuttlefish, within the same classification. The similarities to their modern day relatives include ink sacs and the presence of ten tentacles however, the design of their tentacles also forms a difference between them; on the modern squid they have suckers in order to grab prey, whereas Belemnite tentacles had hooks.
Belemnites were believed to be efficient carnivores that caught small fish and marine animals with their tentacles, and then ate them with their beak-like jaws. It is believed that Belemnites were built for speed and that they probably lived in shoals. Fossil evidence has shown that they formed a major part of the diet of Ichthyosaurs.