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Description: | Specimen of a fossil belemnite, Belemnitella mucronata, collected from the Mucronata Zone, of Late Cretaceous, Early Campanian age from Norwich, Norfolk (SE England). Collected by Emma Smith.
Belemnites are now extinct. Usually all that is found as a fossil is the solid, hard, bullet-shaped 'guard'. This guard was enclosed by the soft body of the animal. When alive, belemnites looked like squid or cuttlefish and are probably related indirectly to these living animals. The guard is thought to have acted as a counterbalance to keep the body horizontal when it was swimming in the sea. Belemnitella was a predator that fed mainly on crustaceans (shrimps and crabs) and fish that it caught in its tentacles.
The specimen was found in Norfolk.
It is from the Cretaceous period (144 - 65 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Cephalopoda Smith Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Emma Mollusca Belemnoidea | Temporal: | Cretaceous period (144 - 65 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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