Belemnitida

Belemnitida is an extinct order of squid-like cephalopods that existed from the Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous. Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone. The parts are, from the arms-most to the tip, the tongue-shaped pro-ostracum, the conical phragmocone, and the pointy guard. The calcitic guard is the most common belemnite remain. Belemnites, in life, are thought to have had 10 hooked arms and a pair of fins on the guard. The chitinous hooks were usually no bigger than 5 mm (0.20 in), though a belemnite could have had between 100 and 800 hooks in total, using them to stab and hold onto prey.

Belemnitida

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
belemnitePBDB
Sits inside
DecabrachiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 285 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.4 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Cambrian — about 1 of 2108 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 2108 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 2108 occurrencesDevonian — about 1 of 2108 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 2 of 2108 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 7 of 2108 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 2 of 2108 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 2108 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 2 of 2108 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 470 of 2108 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 184 of 2108 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 391 of 2108 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 804 of 2108 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 242 of 2108 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 2108 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 2108 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 2108 occurrences549–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–514 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences514–496 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences496–479 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences479–461 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences461–444 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences444–426 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences426–409 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences409–391 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences391–374 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences374–356 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences356–339 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences339–321 Mya — about 1 occurrence321–304 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences304–286 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences286–269 Mya — about 2 occurrences269–251 Mya — about 5 occurrences251–234 Mya — about 2 occurrences234–216 Mya — about 2 occurrences216–199 Mya — about 20 occurrences199–181 Mya — about 327 occurrences181–164 Mya — about 278 occurrences164–146 Mya — about 330 occurrences146–129 Mya — about 575 occurrences129–111 Mya — about 246 occurrences111–94 Mya — about 102 occurrences94–76 Mya — about 130 occurrences76–59 Mya — about 84 occurrences59–41 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences41–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence323.4 Mya37.71 Mya549 Mya24 Mya

2,108 occurrences of Belemnitida on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2,108 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

247 formations

Belemnite Marls — 50.72°N, 2.85°WBelemnite Marls — 50.73°N, 2.87°WBelemnite Marls — 50.76°N, 2.86°WBelemnite Marls — 50.76°N, 2.85°WPalnatokes Bjerg — 74.46°N, 20.17°WPalnatokes Bjerg — 74.45°N, 20.14°WPalnatokes Bjerg — 74.55°N, 19.83°WPalnatokes Bjerg — 74.59°N, 19.58°WKap Leslie — 70.48°N, 21.97°WMarnes de Fontaneilles — 43.85°N, 3.12°EBersek Marl — 47.75°N, 18.50°EJurensismergel — 47.95°N, 7.82°EOkarahia Sandstone — 42.57°S, 173.52°EOkarahia Sandstone — 42.60°S, 173.42°EOkarahia Sandstone — 42.55°S, 173.50°ESzentivánhegy Limestone — 47.17°N, 17.79°EŠtramberk Limestone — 49.58°N, 18.12°EAhlen — 51.80°N, 8.05°EAhlen — 51.83°N, 8.02°EAhlen — 51.72°N, 8.03°EAhlen — 51.82°N, 8.15°EAhlen — 51.72°N, 7.93°EAhlen — 51.95°N, 7.98°EYuryung-Tumus — 74.02°N, 111.58°EMogyorósdomb Limestone — 47.17°N, 17.79°EFossil Bluff — 79.82°S, 55.00°WFossil Bluff — 71.53°S, 68.83°WFossil Bluff — 72.00°S, 69.00°WFossil Bluff — 71.78°S, 68.75°WFossil Bluff — 71.88°S, 68.83°WFossil Bluff — 71.83°S, 68.67°WFossil Bluff — 71.70°S, 68.83°WFossil Bluff — 72.15°S, 69.08°WBudden Canyon — 40.51°N, 122.45°WBudden Canyon — 40.52°N, 122.46°WBudden Canyon — 40.42°N, 122.66°WBudden Canyon — 40.47°N, 122.62°WLower Lias — 51.80°N, 1.88°WMount Goodenough — 67.95°N, 135.41°WLuckovska — 49.03°N, 18.33°EPaksa — 73.00°N, 113.00°EPrairie Bluff — 33.90°N, 88.98°WPrairie Bluff — 33.61°N, 88.90°WPrairie Bluff — 33.51°N, 88.76°WPrairie Bluff — 33.05°N, 88.56°WPrairie Bluff — 32.90°N, 88.46°WPrairie Bluff — 33.73°N, 88.90°WPrairie Bluff — 32.74°N, 88.36°WPrairie Bluff — 32.70°N, 88.17°WPrairie Bluff — 32.61°N, 88.18°WPrairie Bluff — 32.43°N, 88.03°WPrairie Bluff — 32.07°N, 87.33°WLar — 36.67°N, 53.42°EMarnes de Latrecey — 47.98°N, 4.85°EBavnodde Greensand — 55.12°N, 14.75°EBavnodde Greensand — 55.05°N, 14.75°ETarapuhi Grit — 42.57°S, 173.52°EMarnes de Villeneuve — 43.85°N, 3.12°E

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The named rock units Belemnitida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 223 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 893 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Belemnitida and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Belemnitida and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,167 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,321 sites for Belemnitida, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

325 references

Each of the 2,108 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 313 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Belemnitida

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDecabrachia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Haeckel 1866