Belemnite

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of extinct marine mollusk known for its bullet-shaped internal shell, which resembles a modern squid's beak
2. An ancient cephalopod distinguished by its elongated, straight or slightly curved shell, often found in fossilized form
3. A member of a group of extinct marine creatures that lived during the Mesozoic era, characterized by a distinctive shell used for buoyancy and swimming

Etymology: The fossils that gave this word its name were once thought to be thunderbolts. Ancient Greek "bélemnon" meant "dart" or "arrow," and the cone-shaped internal skeleton of these extinct sea creatures looked enough like a missile tip that people imagined it had been hurled from the sky. The word passed into scientific Latin as a name for the whole group, and the English form adds "-ite," a suffix long used for minerals and fossils, since the rostra were often found petrified in rock. The creatures themselves were squid-like cephalopods that swam the Mesozoic seas, and their straight, bullet-shaped guards are among the most common fossils of that era. The shell that gives the animal its name was really only the stiff rear part of its internal skeleton, and it is that calcified portion, not the soft body, that survives in rock.

Synonyms: fossil, cephalopod, extinct marine animal