Delaware

Delaware State Fossil : The Belemnite

by Arianda  A. Espinoza


 * __The Belemnite __**

The Belemnite also known as //Belemnoida //// or most common name the Belemnitella // //americana,// // their name is // derived from the Greek name belemnon or a dart, in fact the belemnites have several names and all of them refer to its pointy shape. For example in England they were called bullets and in China they were named sword stones. The Belemnite were animals that lived in the sea, now extinct and looked similar so squid.


 * __Description __**

Belemnites were an order of mollusks belonging to the cephalopod class, today modern cephalopod are squid and octopus. They had an ink sac NOT tentacles, instead they had ten arms of equal length, and their arms carried a series of little hooks for grabbing prey. Belemnites were carnivores that caught small fish and ate them with their beak-like jaws, but more Jurassic belemnites are round and have a pointed end. Some belemnites could reach from about 50-70 mm to 10 meters in length.

 Slight idea of what Belemnites would look like 

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Fossil of the belemnite
 * __<span style="color: #ff3300; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Picture of the Fossil __**

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">The time the belemnites lived was during the Jurassic times about 150 million years ago, dinosaur times, the Mesozoic Era in the Cretaceous period. This time was ruled and belonged to the dinosaurs; the belemnites only lived in the water. In this era, new plants and forms of nutrition began to appear, in water and land, all for the benefit of the creatures that lived in that time period. The oceans and land were home to many peculiar organisms that seemed to be in a way extinct today.
 * __<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Time it existed __**

<span style="color: #718c34; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">The first records of preserved belemnites include its beak, arm hooks, and ink sac and they seem to be preserved in a large container that occasionally needs fresh oxygen. The caption above of the brown shell it’s a good example of an excellent preservation.
 * __<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Preservation __**

<span style="color: #3399ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">There are several recorded geologists that have found fossils of the belemnite. Belemnite fossils have being found abundantly in the exposures of the Mount Laurel Formation along the banks of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in Delaware, east of St. Georges. In July 2, 1996, belemnite was named as the official fossil of Delaware. Third grade Quest students of Kathy Tidball of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School (Wilmington) suggested honoring the ancient and noble belemnite as the State fossil <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">.
 * __<span style="color: #256e9b; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Who found the fossil/ Why is it the state fossil __**

__**<span style="color: #ff66ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Sources **__

==<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Shimmin, J., (2008). <span class="largish" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">An Introduction to Belemnites. Retrieved from ==