Belemnites

Belemnites is a genus of an extinct group of cephalopods belonging to the order Belemnitida. These cephalopods existed in the Early Jurassic period from the Hettangian age to the Toarcian age (175.6–183.0). They were fast-moving nektonic carnivores.

Belemnites

Hectonichus · 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
Sits inside
BelemnitinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Belemnitida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 179 million years on record.

The record covers at least 251.902 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 78 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 78 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 78 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 78 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 78 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 78 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 78 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 78 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 78 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 10 of 78 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 6 of 78 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 31 of 78 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 27 of 78 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 78 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 78 occurrences548–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–499 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences499–483 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences483–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–434 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences434–417 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences417–401 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences401–384 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences384–368 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences368–352 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences352–335 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335–319 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences319–302 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences302–286 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences286–270 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences270–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences204–188 Mya — about 5 occurrences188–171 Mya — about 5 occurrences171–155 Mya — about 16 occurrences155–138 Mya — about 27 occurrences138–122 Mya — about 17 occurrences122–106 Mya — about 4 occurrences106–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–73 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences73–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence251.902 Mya72.2 Mya548 Mya57 Mya

78 occurrences of Belemnites on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

78 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

18 formations

Mariposa — 38.50°N, 121.01°WMariposa — 37.98°N, 120.56°WMariposa — 37.95°N, 120.52°WMariposa — 37.60°N, 120.13°WAgardhfjellet — 78.10°N, 13.91°ERurikfjellet — 78.10°N, 13.94°ERurikfjellet — 78.10°N, 13.95°EMonte de Oro — 39.54°N, 121.53°WKap Leslie — 70.48°N, 21.97°WBuchia Ridge — 59.25°N, 159.75°WPaksa — 73.00°N, 113.00°ELautaro — 28.21°S, 69.94°WLautaro — 28.31°S, 69.96°WCouche de Villers — 47.02°N, 6.92°ERingstead Coral Bed — 50.80°N, 2.28°WSlater River — 64.90°N, 125.58°WClansayes — 27.20°N, 100.55°WCape Stewart Beds — 70.46°N, 22.63°WCerritos Bayos — 22.56°S, 69.14°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.10°WAdnet — 47.46°N, 13.56°EFormación Punta del Cobre — 29.35°S, 71.33°WPaskenta — 40.13°N, 122.23°W

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The named rock units Belemnites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Belemnites and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Belemnites and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

428 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 73 sites for Belemnites, and this reads all 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

27 references

Each of the 78 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. 15 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 Belemnites

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itBelemnitinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lamarck 1799