Belemnites - assorted favourites from my collection

[TqB]

Carrying on the Toarcian Falciferum Subzone of Yorkshire:

Definitely a favourite - I always get excited by finding Parapassaloteuthis robusta (Simpson, 1855).

 

It's a delightfully chunky and scarce species, rare in the larger sizes.

So far, I've found that it only occurs above the band that bears Cuspiteuthis tubularis (previous post), but still below the top of the Falciferum Subzone. This agrees with the monograph's given range, though its list of specimens contradicts this by listing a couple from the Bifrons Zone above. It doesn't seem to have been found outside England, mainly Yorkshire. 

 

 

Right lateral, showing dorso-lateral apical furrow. All passaloteuthids just have the pair of these, there is no ventral furrow.

 

Size range - and all of my reasonably complete specimens so far. (A mixture of left and right views - some are damaged by wear on the exposed side).

 

Typical medium sized specimen - third from the left above.

Edited July 1, 2020 by TqB

[TqB]

Appearing at about the same time in Yorkshire as the Parapassaloteuthis in the last post is Simpsonibelus dorsalis (Phillips, 1867).

 

This is the earliest Simpsonibelus to appear here. It's joined by two others further up in the Bifrons Zone - see below. 

(It's widespread in Europe - and occurs in Greenland - but I don't know the relative stratigraphy.) 

The genus is characterised externally by its clavate (club-shaped) to sub-clavate form and three apical furrows (like Acrocoelites) though their development is variable (also like Acrocoelites). It is fairly small - these are largeish examples

 

Simpsonibelus dorsalis  bottom of Bifrons Zone, Commune Subzone

Lateral

 

Dorsal view of a more slender S. dorsalis, near top of Falciferum Subzone, showing the curious short dorsal furrow at the alveolar end that is a feature of many specimens. Not regarded as taxonomically significant though it gave it its name.

 

Simpsonibelus lentus, Bifrons Zone, Crassum Subzone.

Can be distinguished from S. dorsalis by its compressed section (vertical axis longer) - S. dorsalis is depressed (horizontal axis longer). And S. lentus is typically larger.

Lateral

 

Ventral (very weak furrow hardly visible here)

 

Ventral of another S. lentus, with strong furrow.

 

Lateral of the above:

 

And for completeness, the third species, Simpsoniblus expansus. This specimen also from the Crassum Subzone.

This is an archetypal small, "normal" belemnite, much less clavate than the others and with a close to equidimensional section, not compressed or depressed. 

With strong dorso-lateral and ventral furrows (so very like a small Acrocoelites - don't ask me how the separation is justified…  )

Lateral:

 

Ventral:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by TqB

[TqB]

(Completely out of stratigraphic sequence but I just acquired this. And it's definitely a favourite belemnite.  )

 

Praeactinocamax (formerly Actinocamax) plenus, Plenus Marl Member, Chalk Group, Cretaceous, upper Cenomanian, southern England.

An iconic species - I can't offhand think of another belemnite that's given its name to a rock bed.

 

A Boreal belemnite, it's tenuously linked to some of the the previous Toarcian ones in this thread by also being present in England due an Ocean Anoxic Event - OAE 2 of the Cretaceous.

Its short incursion from the Boreal region into the Anglo Paris Basin has been termed the "Plenus Event".

 

An unmistakable species with a short range. This is about as large as they can get. From an old collection, bought from an antique seller, sadly no label...

 

Dorsal view

 

End view - this genus always looks like this as the alveolar region is missing due to poor and/or incompletel calcifification. Quite a lot of belemnite species are similar, starting back in the Lower Jurassic.

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by TqB

[Ruger9a]

OMG!  A seemingly unlimited supply of wonderful specimens.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

[TqB]

On 07/07/2020 at 1:06 PM, Ruger9a said:

OMG!  A seemingly unlimited supply of wonderful specimens.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

A pleasure, thank you. Quite a few more to come.

 

Back to the Yorkshire Toarcian, Falciferum Subzone. This one is a unique specimen as far as I can find out, and certainly for the area. It hasn't been definitely identified yet and is likely a new species or even genus.

 

It consists of a large, very obtuse phragmocone (even allowing for the crushing), with a tiny, blunt rostrum at the apex.

The rostrum was removable, cracked from the rest, so I was able to photograph it separately. This shows that the phragmocone extends right inside the tip.

The rostrum itself doesn't show normal, fibrous belemnite structure and there is a strong suggestion of a ?dorsal ridge in the section which is similar to Acanthoteuthis/Belemnotheutis from the Callovian.

 

I've shown photos to various specialists and no-one is quite sure what it is. Chondroteuthis wunnenbergi Bode, 1933, was one plausible suggestion but mine is a lot fatter and apparently larger - see photos.

That's a monospecific genus described from Germany that is found at one Gloucestershire location in the UK, actually in a very special lagerstatte, the Alderton Fish Bed, in the subzone below mine.  Perhaps it could be a second species of it - more research needed.

 

 

Apex, showing 6mm rostrum with fracture right at the tip

 

Magnified views of detached rostrum

 

Fractured surface at the top of the rostrum above, showing phragmocone chamber wall and lack of clear structure in the rostrum. I think this is the right way up - exposed, weathered surface on the right, apparent ridge structure with faint growth bands in the section at the top.

 

Comparison with Chondroteuthis at the same scale (from Doyle, 1992, The British Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) Belemnites:

 

Comparison of rostra -  the apical 6mm of this matrix-free Chondroteuthis is the corresponding part. Definitely looks too slender to be the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by TqB

[Bobby Rico]

Incredible collection Tarquin . Museum quality.  

[TqB]

On 09/07/2020 at 2:36 PM, Bobby Rico said:

Incredible collection Tarquin . Museum quality.  

Thanks, Bobby!

 

Two slabs of a belemnite concentration, "battlefield", which occurs at the top of the Serpentinum Zone,  Falciferum Subzone on the north Yorkshire coast.

They are from lenticular deposits. The same bed contains nodules with the ammonite Ovaticeras ovatum which is rare outside this bed and from other UK locations generally.

It is caused largely by being a condensed deposit and possibly includes reptile regurgitate (the famous "Ichthyosaur vomit"), suggested by the concentration of arm hooks that also occur between the belemnites.

It also marks the end of the Toarcian Ocean Anoxic Event.

 

There are two species - Acrocoelites subtenuis (Simpson, 1855) (slender) and A. vulgaris (Young & Bird, 1822) (robust). These are both common above and below the bed as well. (Sometimes, Simpsonibelus dorsalis is found in this bed as well but I've not noticed any.)

 

 

 

Acrocoelites subtenuis may have a bimodal distribution of length, suggesting sexual dimorphism. This was found by Doyle in his monograph based on analysis of external dimensions. Growth analysis by sectioning a lot of specimens might help to confirm this (I'm not doing it!).

 

A long, slender form near the limit for this morphotype, base of Bifrons Zone, Commune Subzone, above the belemnite bed:

 

Group of A. subtenuis including shorter, more robust forms. 

 

The other common species in the belemnite bed, Acrocoelites vulgaris. Highly variable, possibly dimorphic though these few don't demonstrate that.

Top of Falciferum Subzone.

Edited July 15, 2020 by TqB

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 7/7/2020 at 11:57 AM, TqB said:

 

An iconic species - I can't offhand think of another belemnite that's given its name to a rock bed.

 

Me neither. 

Closest I can get is the Belemnite Marl Member of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation. 

But that's not named after a particular species, of course. 

Love that 'Chondroteuthis'. 

[TqB]

3 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Me neither. 

Closest I can get is the Belemnite Marl Member of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation. 

But that's not named after a particular species, of course. 

Love that 'Chondroteuthis'. 

Thanks, Adam - it's definitely one of my favourite specimens.

 

For completeness on the last belemnite bed post: I found this unusually large (for the bed) belemnite in it few years ago, in a shale between the nodules and belemnite lenses.

The species has never been recorded from this high as far as I know and surprised me a lot when I saw it. In Yorkshire, it disappears about 60-70ft below, just above the base of the Falciferum Subzone.

 

Acrocoelites trisulculosus, top of Falciferum Subzone. Near Whitby, Ovatum Band, bed 48 in Howarth's scheme.

 

 

 

 

[Ruger9a]

More great stuff..... It never seems to end - thank God!  Thanks for sharing again.

[butchndad]

incredible collection

serious question; other than Praeactinocamax (formerly Actinocamax) plenus  every single specimen is some shade of grey. Why?  Some here in NJ (and i assume elsewhere) are a quite pretty color.  

[TqB]

2 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

More great stuff..... It never seems to end - thank God!  Thanks for sharing again.

I'm glad someone else thinks that endless belemnites are heavenly! Thank you, plenty more to go yet.

 

2 hours ago, butchndad said:

incredible collection

serious question; other than Praeactinocamax (formerly Actinocamax) plenus  every single specimen is some shade of grey. Why?  Some here in NJ (and i assume elsewhere) are a quite pretty color.  

Thank you - that's a good question. First, it's not quite true - if you check the first page, there are some orangey-brown ones, and white. But it's a matter of preservation - I don't know the exact reason but belemnites were originally fairly porous structures and later mineralisation strongly affects their colour.

 

All of the specimens so far, apart from the Praeactinocamax,  are from Lower Jurassic mudstones of one sort or other.

Many (all the Yorkshire ones) are from fairly hard, dark shales or marls which both tend to leave a grey, thin, indurated layer over the actual surface which gives you the dull grey. The interiors are more brownish and translucent but still dark.

 

Specimens from softer clays tend to be more brown or orange (unless they have an indurated grey crust) and specimens from many white limestones (e.g. Cretaceous Chalk) are nearly always orange. Overall, most upper Cretaceous belemnites in western Europe and the USA seem to be orange.

 

So there will be more colour range as I move to other rocks! 

Edited July 15, 2020 by TqB

[badeend]

Thanks for showing! Great to bring this under-appreciated group in to the light!

 

Greetings Walter

[ksabrie]

Mine are slightly different color and age.  Found at Green Mill Run, North Carolina.

[TqB]

On 1/22/2021 at 9:59 AM, badeend said:

Thanks for showing! Great to bring this under-appreciated group in to the light!

 

Greetings Walter

Thank you! 

 

On 2/5/2021 at 2:23 AM, ksabrie said:

Mine are slightly different color and age.  Found at Green Mill Run, North Carolina.

Nice collection of good specimens.

 

 

I'm jumping out of sequence a bit - after all, this is just "favourite belemnites", not really an attempt to give a time line. (The two or three species I had been going to do next are rather difficult to sort out and I'm a bit stuck on them so I'll miss them out for now.  )

 

Salpingoteuthis - it is quite difficult to find this genus in the UK as it is a Tethyan one so didn't make it here very often. It's more widespread on the continent.

 

The two species below occur mostly/only  in Dorset as far as I know. There is one other that makes it as far north as Worcestershire and Northamptonshire, about 100 miles away in the Midlands.

They're a little tricky to collect as the preservation is very fragile.  Also, they were quite hard to distinguish from "normal" belemnites in the field as they were covered with sticky, sandy matrix. These have been air abraded..

 

Salpingoteuthis trisulcata (Blainville, 1827), Upper Toarcian, Bridport Sands, Levesqui Zone, Dorset.

Much of the length is an epirostrum, covered with later normal layered rostral material - this is normal for the genus.

Despite the name "trisulcata", there are often four grooves: a pair of lateral, one ventral and often one dorsal. There are also several weaker striae.

 

Lateral

 

Ventral

 

Dorsal

 

An old photo of the break halfway along, showing indefinite structure of epirostral material in the centre overgrown with orthorostral laminae.

 

 

Salpingoteuthis dorsetensis (Oppel, 1856). Location details as above. (The break was eroded a little so won't glue flush.) 

Lateral

 

Ventral

 

Dorsal

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very interesting.

And nice to see a new addition to the thread.  

[TqB]

5 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Very interesting.

And nice to see a new addition to the thread.  

Thank you, Adam. I have been neglecting belemnites a bit, what with not being able to collect any at the moment. Plenty more to come though.

[Mike from North Queensland]

Thought I would add this belemnite here as is interesting being pathalogical dimitobelus species

 

[Paleorunner]

wow !!! what an extensive and wonderful collection of belemnites.
thanks for sharing.

[LiamL]

On 7/1/2020 at 5:57 PM, TqB said:

Carrying on the Toarcian Falciferum Subzone of Yorkshire:

Definitely a favourite - I always get excited by finding Parapassaloteuthis robusta (Simpson, 1855).

 

It's a delightfully chunky and scarce species, rare in the larger sizes.

So far, I've found that it only occurs above the band that bears Cuspiteuthis tubularis (previous post), but still below the top of the Falciferum Subzone. This agrees with the monograph's given range, though its list of specimens contradicts this by listing a couple from the Bifrons Zone above. It doesn't seem to have been found outside England, mainly Yorkshire. 

 

 

Right lateral, showing dorso-lateral apical furrow. All passaloteuthids just have the pair of these, there is no ventral furrow.

 

Size range - and all of my reasonably complete specimens so far. (A mixture of left and right views - some are damaged by wear on the exposed side).

 

Typical medium sized specimen - third from the left above.

I've picked up one of those big boys. Only one I can tell the difference between, except the thin and chunky ones!

[TqB]

On 6/1/2021 at 8:55 AM, Mike from North Queensland said:

Thought I would add this belemnite here as is interesting being pathalogical dimitobelus species

 

 

Thanks, Mike, that is a great example.  (And nice to see a Dimitobelus, they don't occur much in the northern hemisphere.)  

I have just a few similar - this is the most bent, an Acrocoelites sp. from the Yorkshire Toarcian. The section shows where the causative damage happened.

(Old photos, hence the rather lurid background which I liked at the time!)

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by TqB

[TqB]

I was delighted to acquire recently this extremely rare German Hettangian belemnite. (Slightly incomplete apex but I don't mind - I never thought one would come my way. I've looked in UK Hettangian strata for years where belemnite rostra remain unknown...)

 

Schwegleria praecox, a species of the earliest known true belemnites in Europe and possibly the world. Nearly all of these (three species) currently belong to the genus Schwegleria Riegraf 1980

 

From near the base of the Jurassic, lower Hettangian Stage, from a temporary excavation in about 2015 in the same region as the type material (see below).

 

The genus is known from one collection of thirty specimens, found in Nürtingen, near Stuttgart, Baden-Würtemberg, in the early 20th century, and more recently an additional half a dozen specimens (largely fragmentary) from S. Belgium. The thirty were first described in 1939 by Schwegler under the genera Nannobelus and Holcoteuthis (=Passaloteuthis) and divided into three species.

 

Only two specimens were assigned to S. praecox.

 

I have all the literature but the most useful is R. Schlegelmilch's redescription and nomination of type specimens in 1996.: 

Neubearbeitung der Belemniten aus dem Hettangium von Nürtingen (Baden-Württemberg, Südwestdeutschland). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 238:1-17

 

Available here (in German:

biodiversity.org-Schlegelmilch  

 

Uniquely for the genus, S. praecox has a pair of lateral apical furrows (which may well mean it needs a new genus).

It also has a ventral apical furrow which it shares with the commonest species S. feifeli, the type of Schwegleria.

Both of these features distinguish it sharply from the somewhat later (Sinemurian), unfurrowed and extremely common Nannobelus which was once considered the earliest belemnite genus.

 

Right lateral

 

Ventral

 

Lateral apical furrow

 

Ventral apical furrow

 

Broken alveolar end, showing elliptical section of rostrum

 

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by TqB

[Bobby Rico]

Very nice and informative post. Nice to add another rare one to the collection.
 

all the best Bobby  

[TqB]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

Very nice and informative post. Nice to add another rare one to the collection.
 

all the best Bobby  

Thanks, Bobby. They're intriguing - there are probably a whole lot of these preserved somewhere undiscovered!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Fascinating! 

Great that you got one for your collection, Tarquin!