DR. MANTELL ON BELEMNITES, ETC. 
173 
was diligently examined to ascertain whether there were any remains, or traces of 
the imprints, of the soft and perishable parts, of the bodies of the original animals. 
Although these researches were not rewarded by the discovery of any good examples 
of the muscular tunic, arms, &c. of the Cephalopoda, whose hard and durable relics 
are scattered in profusion through the strata, there are in the collection my son 
transmitted to me, a few specimens which present characters hitherto unobserved, or 
at least unnoticed, by any author, and which appear to me of sufficient importance to 
be placed on record, as interesting additions to our knowledge of the structure of 
the animal of the Belemnite. 
In the following remarks I shall restrict myself to the description of the fossils, 
of which accurate figures by Mr. Joseph Dinkel, executed under my immediate 
inspection, are subjoined ; and the bearing of the facts described on the still mooted 
question as to whether the Belemnoteuthis and the Belemnite belong to the same 
genus ; in other words, whether the soft parts of Cephalopoda found in the Oxford 
Clay of Wiltshire, and figured and described by Mr. Channing Pearce, Professor 
Owen, and Mr. Cunnington, belong to the Belemnites geologically associated with 
them, but with which they have never yet been found in organic connection. 
The late Mr. Channing Pearce, whose early death every British palaeontologist 
must deeply regret, was the first who noticed and described the muscular mantle, 
phragmocone, uncinated arms, &c. of certain Cephalopods found in the Oxford Clay 
at Christian-Malford, and which he referred to a new genus under the name of 
Belemnoteuthis. According to the observations of this gentleman, and of subsequent 
authors, the body of this Cephalopod was of an elongated form, and contained a large 
internal conical shell, which is chambered and siphonated at its apical or distal ex- 
tremity to the extent of about one-half (?) the length of the entire cone, and termi- 
nates anteriorly, or at its basal part, in a capacious chamber or cavity, in which the 
ink-bag, and probably other viscera, were placed. The external surface, which is of 
a brown colour, generally possesses a glossy smoothness, as if produced by its imme- 
diate contact with the secreting surface of the mantle. The outer integument of 
this conical shell consists of a thick corneo-calcareous layer (which for convenience 
I will call the epidermis), investing a nacreous, iridescent substance. Two large 
sessile eyes have been detected, and in several specimens the cephalic arms are more 
or less perfectly preserved ; there are likewise indications of a pair of long tentacula, 
superadded to the eight shorter arms, as in the existing The arms were 
furnished with acetabula or suckers, the horny hoops of which were beset with 
curved spines or hooks, as in the living Onychoteuthis. Traces of a pair of pallial 
fins have been detected by Professor Owen, to whose memoir I would refer for 
minute details of structure, which are not within the scope of the present communi- 
cation'!'. 
* Professor Owen, Philosophical Transactions, 1844, p. 78. 
t Ibid. p. 79. 
2 A 2 
