CLASS CEPHALOPODA 



FAMILY BELEMNITID.E. 



Genus BELEMNITES, Auct * 



Belemnites -. 



£l. 8, Fig. 9, and 9 a. 



A few fragments of this fossil in the collection are sufficiently Well preserved 

 to leave no doubts in regard to its belonging to the genus Belemnites, though they 

 present no reliable characters for specific identification. One of the specimens 

 shows longitudinal and transverse sections of the anterior portion, with the conical 

 cavity for the reception of the phragmocone filled with the same hard material as 

 the matrix in which the fossil is embedded. Although somewhat altered by the 

 metamorphic action to which it has been subjected, the substance of the guard 

 retains its original fibrous structure. The sections across the anterior cavity for 

 the reception of the phragmocone show that it Wants the characteristic slit of the 

 genus Belemnltella, and hence must be a true Belemnite, as that name is generally 

 applied. Occurs associated With Rhynchonella gnaihophora. 



* It is probable that a strict compliance with the established laws of nomen- 

 clature may compel us to restrict the name Belemnites to the group D'Orbigny 

 proposed to call Belcmnitolla, since Lamarck seems to have been the first regular 

 binomial author who used it in a binomial sense; and his only example (Syst. An. 

 1801, 104) was his B. paxillosus (B. mucronata, Schlot.), the type of Belemnitella, 

 D'Orbigny. If so, some one of the several names proposed by Montfort would 

 have to be taken for the group to which authors most generally apply the name 

 Belemnites. 



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