belemnite

American  

[bel-uhm-nahyt] / ˈbɛl əmˌnaɪt /

noun

Paleontology.

1. a conical fossil, several inches long, consisting of the internal calcareous rod of an extinct animal allied to the cuttlefish; a thunderstone.

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belemnite British  

/ ˈbɛləmˌnaɪt /

noun

1. any extinct marine cephalopod mollusc of the order Belemnoidea , related to the cuttlefish

2. the long pointed conical internal shell of any of these animals: a common Mesozoic fossil

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belemnite Scientific  

/ bĕl′əm-nīt′ /

1. Any of various extinct cephalopod mollusks of the order Belemnoidea that lived from the Triassic into the Tertiary Period. Belemnites had a large, cone-shaped internal shell with a complex structure that served as a support for muscles and as a hydrostatic device. Belemnites were closely related to the present-day squids and cuttlefishes.

2. The fossilized internal shell of one of these cephalopods. Belemnites are used as index fossils.

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Etymology

Origin of belemnite

1640–50; < French bélemnite, equivalent to Greek bélemn ( on ) a dart (noun derivative from base of bállein to throw) + French -ite -ite ¹

Example Sentences

The belemnite, it turned out, had been discovered four years earlier by an amateur naturalist named Chaning Pearce, and the discovery had been fully reported at a meeting of the Geological Society.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

This stone, about which there has been more obscurity and confusion than about any other gem, is supposed by some writers to be the tourmaline, by others a jacinth, and by others a belemnite.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by Gilbert, William

Indeed, I have had two thunderbolts shown me at once, one of which was a large belemnite, and the other a modern Indian tomahawk.

From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant

The day of the ammonite and the belemnite also now drew to a close, and only a few of these cephalopods were left to survive the period.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

Another and very different form of thunderbolt is the belemnite, a common English fossil often preserved in houses in the west country with the same superstitious reverence as the neolithic hatchets.

From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant