Did Ammonites shoot ink?

[Raymondthedinosaurfan]

Like did Ammonite shoot ink back then? please tell me.

[piranha]

Klug, C., & Lehmann, J. (2015)

Soft part anatomy of ammonoids: reconstructing the animal based on

exceptionally preserved specimens and actualistic comparisons. pp. 507-529  LINK

In: Klug, C., Korn, D., De Baets, K., Kruta, I., & Mapes, R.H. (eds.) 
Ammonoid Paleobiology: From Anatomy to Ecology.
Springer Publishing, Topics in Geobiology, 43:1-934

 

Ink Sac or Not?
The presence or absence of an ink sac in ammonoids has been debated by several authors.  Among the first to suggest the presence of ink sacs in ammonoids was Lehmann (1967a), interpreting a bag-shaped black structure in a specimen of Eleganticeras from the Toarcian of northern Germany as an ink sac.  Others followed this idea, namely Wetzel (1979), who published on what he believed was an ink sac of the Early Cretaceous ammonite Bochianites, also from northern Germany.  In the end, it was Lehmann himself, who started doubting his own interpretation of these structures as ink sacs.  In his “Epilog über den Tintenbeutel” (Lehmann 1985), he reports of his observation that most ammonoids, even exceptionally preserved ones, lacked ink sacs.  Mathur (1977) proved the presence of melanin in ammonoids, which seemed like the ultimate proof for ink sacs in some genera.  For his Ophiceras from Greenland, however, Lehmann (1985) did not manage to proof the same.  His doubts found support in the work of Riegraf et al. (1984), who concluded that ammonoids did not possess an ink sac, an opinion, Lehmann (1985) then adopted.

 

Doguzhaeva et al. (2004, 2010) reported bituminous structures in the body chamber of Austrotrachyceras.  Due to their resemblance to melanin, the structures were interpreted as ink sacs.  This is an interpretation, which we doubt since unequivocal evidence for ink sacs in ectocochleates is so far missing and does not make much sense.  There are several other structures in ammonoids that contain melanin (Pezzella et al. 1997; Glass et al. 2012).  It could well be, however, that the organic material is part of the black layer, the beaks or the oesophagus, which are all known to contain melanin in cephalopods.  Additional comparable structures were published by Klug et al. (2007).  Therein, several cases of black band, black layer and false color patterns were illustrated (see also Klug 2004; Klug et al. 2004).

[doushantuo]

i think i posted on this subject a while back

INK

Piranha,you read Tetrahedron letters?

[doushantuo]

"orthoceras" with possible ink sac(Ehrenberg):