396 
DR. MANTELL ON THE BELEMNITE. 
Some of the specimens in the British Museum and in my own cabinet exhibit on 
the space around and between the processes, delicate striae, apparently produced by 
the imprint of the muscular fibres of the mantle or other tissues ; and these I believe 
are the only indications hitherto observed of the soft parts of the animal to which 
the Belemnite belonged. 
In fine, the Belemnite is characterized by its rostrum and the investing capsule, 
and its phragmocone chambered to the extreme apex and having a pair of testaceous 
processes at the basilar margin of the peristome* ; while the Belemnoteiithis has 
simply an osselet of a radiated fibrous structure, inclosing a conical chambered shell 
that terminates distally in a solid obtuse point-f-. Whether the Belemnite resembled 
the Belemnoteuthis in possessing an ink-bag, and having a body with eight uncinated 
arms and a pair of long tentacula, future discoveries can alone determine. 
Although this communication may be devoid of interest to those who do not espe- 
cially cultivate the department of natural science to which this inquiry belongs, it will 
not I trust be deemed unimportant by the palaeontologist, since the new facts herein 
described tend to remove in some degree the obscurity which veils the original struc- 
ture of a race of highly organized beings, that swarmed in the seas of every part of 
the globe:|: during the secondary geological periods, from the Lias to the Chalk in- 
clusive, and which appears to have become extinct with the contemporary Cephalo- 
poda, the Ammonites, at the close of the cretaceous epoch 
Chester Square, Oct. 1849 . 
Additional Note. 
February 14, 1850. 
Since the previous observations were communicated to the Secretary of the Royal 
Society, I have been so fortunate as to obtain from the Oxford Clay of Wiltshire, a 
Belemnite in which the two dorsal processes of the phragmocone are more perfectly 
displayed than in any specimen hitherto discovered (see Plate XXX.). 
From the rarity of such fossils, and their extreme fragility and perishable nature, 
* I do not mean to aver that similar processes exist in every species of Belemnite, for it is probable that, as 
in Ammonites, there may have been considerable diversity in the form and size of these appendages ; and in 
some species the basilar margin of the peristome may have been destitute of them ; my remarks exclusively 
refer to the species of Belemnites described in the text. 
t The facts described in the text are of course directly opposed to the views expressed in the following ex- 
tract from the Philosophical Transactions for 1844, p. 74: “The association of the spathose guards with crushed 
phragmocones identical in structure with those in connection with the fossil ink-bags and muscular parts.” 
t Belemnites have recently been discovered in limestone in the Middle Island of New Zealand, by my eldest 
son, Mr. Walter Mantell. — See Geological .Journal for August, 1850. 
§ Belemnites first appear in the Lias, where they suddenly attain their maximum development. Many spe- 
cies abound in the Oolitic or Jurassic formation: in the Greewsarac? they are likewise abundant; in the Galt there 
are but two or three small species. In the Chalk strata a modification of the type, termed Belemnitellce, appear, 
and with these the race seems to have become extinct ; at least no traces of its existence have been detected in 
any newer deposits, save the Beloptera of the tertiary previously mentioned. I am not aware that any examples 
of Belemnoteuthis have been found in the Lias : hitherto I have obtained specimens only from the Oxford Clay 
and contiguous strata. 
