176 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL INVEETEBEATE ANIMALS. 



Qallery and with no trace of a phragmocone. Many of these 

 WaTl^case P^®^®^^® ^^^^ ink-bag, which in G. hrevipinnis from the 

 7, Oxford Clay of Christian Malford is sometimes of great size, 

 while the ten arms are very short — an obvious correlation. 

 From the Upper Lias are also shown the similar shell of 

 Teuthopsis, and that of Beloteidhis strengthened by a median 

 keel. Shells of generally similar character are found in 

 Coccotmthis [^Tracliyteutliis] from the Solenhofen Stone. An 

 admirable specimen preserves portions of the mantle and 

 side-fins, and has eight well-developed arms bearing suckers ; 

 the two long arms found in recent Decapoda may have been 

 present but retracted. A very large shell of this genus is at 

 the bottom of the (Jase. In PlesioteutMs prisca from the 

 same stratum the shell is reduced to a long narrow pen, with 

 the side expansions at its hinder end and quite small. The 

 same genus occurs in the Senonian rocks of the Lebanon, 

 whence come Plesioteuthis Fraasi and the allied Dorateitthis 

 syriaca (Fig. 86 h), both with eight short and possibly two 

 long arms. 



Table-case A shell in which the phragmocone is still preserved, as 

 in Phragmoteuthis, but in which the guard is reduced to a 

 thin shiny coat, is that of Belemnoteuthis antiqua (Fig. 86 a). 

 There is shown a fine series of this from the Oxford Clay, 

 chiefly of Christian Malford (see p. 156). The ten short arms 

 are well seen, and in one specimen seem to have caught a 

 small fish. AcantJioteuthis from the Solenhofen Stone is said 

 to have had a shell with more reduced phragmocone and 

 larger pro-ostracum. Specimens are shown preserving the 

 arms, eight or ten in number, with well-marked hooks ; th 

 mantle ; and a membrane round the mouth like that of living 

 Onychoteuthidse. Conote2f this (Fig. 85 g), of which fossils are 

 shown from Neocomian, Aptian, and Albian rocks, had a 

 small curved phragmocone, suggesting the end of the 

 Ommastrephes shell (Fig. 85 h). 



Wall-ease The specimen of Pcdaeodopus Newholdi, from the Senonian 

 7- of Lebanon, is the oldest fossil Octopod. There is no evidence 

 to show from which of the races just described it may have 

 been derived. With the Octopoda, which are the most highly 

 specialised of Mollusca, and furnish some of the monsters of 

 modern seas, we reach the end of this sketch of extinct 

 invertebrate animals. 



