112 



PALAEONTOLOGY. 



probability are identical in genus, if not in species, with the 

 Acanthoteuthis described by Minister. One of these extra- 

 ordinary fossils — the mummy of a cuttle-fish more ancient 

 than the chalk formation and the upper oolites — is repre- 

 sented in fig. 34, 2, reduced to one -sixth from the original 

 in the British Museum. Nine of the arms are preserved, the 

 sclerotic plates of the eyes, the bases of the large lateral fins, 



Fig. 34. 



i. Belemnites Oweni ; Oxford Clay, Chippenham, p. Phragmocone 

 exposed by the removal of the fibrous guard from one side ; s, septum, 

 shewing the marginal siphuncle. 



2. Acanthoteuthis antiquus (Cunnington) ; Oxford Clay, Chippenham ; 



dorsal aspect. 



3. Conoteuthis Dupinii, D'Orb. ; Oault, Folkestone. 



4. Geoteuthis Bollensis, Schubler ; U. Lias, Wurtemberg. 



5. Sepia Cuvieri, Dsh. ; M. Eocene, Bracklesham. 



6. Coccoteuthis latipinnis, Ow. ; Kimclay, Kimmeridge. 



7. Spirulirostra Bellardii, D'Orb. Miocene, Turin. 



8. Beloptera belemnitoidea, Bl. ; M. Eocene, Bracklesham. 



the small ink-bag, and the conical shell. This shell, which 

 is chambered internally, like the phragmocone of the Belemnite 

 (fig. 34, p), has an outer sheath of fibrous structure, one-fourth 

 of an inch thick at the apex, and furnished with two con- 

 verging ridges on its dorsal side ; the external surface, how- 

 ever, is horny (or chitinous), like the pen of the Calamary. 

 These chambered shells occur in great numbers, and are so 



