| Belosaepia Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Order: | Sepiida |
| Family: | † Belosaepiidae |
| Genus: | † Belosaepia |
| Species | |
Belosaepia, occasionally incorrectly Belosepia, [2] is an extinct genus of cuttlefish-like cephalopod known from the Eocene. [1]
Species of the genus Belosaepia reached 18 centimetres (7.1 in) in length and 5 centimetres (2.0 in) across and had a large siphuncle that penetrated its oblique septa. [1] The shell was endogastrically coiled. [1] It had a small belemnite-like guard, which took the form of a short horn at the posterior end of the shell; [1] usually, only a small portion of the shell closest to the guard is preserved. The chambers in the shell closely resemble those present in the cuttlebone of modern cuttlefish. [1]
Belosaepia lived close to the sea floor. [1]
Monte Bolca is a lagerstätte near Verona, Italy that was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the Eocene.
Belemnoids are an extinct group of marine cephalopod, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish. Like them, the belemnoids possessed an ink sac, but, unlike the squid, they possessed ten arms of roughly equal length, and no tentacles. The name "belemnoid" comes from the Greek word βέλεμνον, belemnon meaning "a dart or arrow" and the Greek word είδος, eidos meaning "form".
Gastornis is an extinct genus of large flightless birds that lived during the mid Paleocene to mid Eocene epochs of the Paleogene period. Fossils have been found in Europe, Asia and North America, with the remains from North America originally assigned to the genus Diatryma.
Moeritherium is an extinct genus of primitive proboscideans. These prehistoric mammals are related to the elephant and, more distantly, sea cows and hyraxes. They lived during the Eocene epoch.
Cirrina or Cirrata is a suborder and one of the two main divisions of octopuses. Cirrate octopuses have a small, internal shell and two fins on their head, while their sister suborder Incirrina has neither. The fins of cirrate octopods are associated with a unique cartilage-like shell in a shell sac. In cross-section, the fins have distinct proximal and distal regions, both of which are covered by a thin surface sheath of muscle.
Pycnodus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Eocene period. It is wastebasket taxon, although many fossils from Jurassic or Cretaceous are assigned to this genus, only Eocene species, P. apodus is valid. As its name suggests, it is the type genus of Pycnodontiformes.
Limnofregata is an extinct genus of primitive frigatebird. The two known species were described after fossils from the Early Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming. A number of good complete and partial skeletons, some with feather impressions, are known of the type species, Limnofregata azygosternon, and L. hasegawai is known from two skulls and most of one torso.
Icaronycteris is an extinct genus of microchiropteran (echolocating) bat that lived in the early Eocene, approximately 52.2 million years ago, making it the earliest known definitive bat. Four exceptionally preserved specimens, among the best preserved bat fossils, are known from the Green River Formation of North America. There is only one thoroughly described species of bat in the genus, I. index, although fragmentary material from France has also been tentatively placed within Icaronycteris as the second species I. menui. I. sigei is based on well-preserved fragments of dentaries and lower teeth found in Western India.
Notostylops is a genus of extinct South American ungulates from Eocene Argentina. Fossils of the genus have been found in the Sarmiento, Casamayor, Andesitas Huancache and Koluel Kaike Formations.
Heliobatis is an extinct genus of stingray in the Myliobatiformes family Dasyatidae. At present the genus contains the single species Heliobatis radians.
Cameroceras is a genus of extinct, large orthoconic cephalopod that lived mainly during the Ordovician period. It first appears during the middle Ordovician, around 470 million years ago, and was a fairly common component of the fauna in some places during the period, inhabiting the shallow seas of Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia. Its diversity and abundance became severely reduced following the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, and the last remnants of the genus went extinct sometime during the Wenlock. C. rowenaense from Cincinnati had shell length about 70 centimetres (2.3 ft), and unnamed species had length about 1 metre (3.3 ft). In older literature Cameroceras was treated as the largest nautiloid with shell length about 6 metres (20 ft) or even 30 feet (9.1 m). However, the large-sized species no longer belongs to genus Cameroceras but Endoceras giganteum, and the 30 feet (9.1 m)-long specimen is highly doubtful.
Belemnitella is a genus of belemnite from the Late Cretaceous of Europe and North America. Belemnitella was a squidlike animal, probably related to the ancestors of modern squids and cuttlefish. The shell was internal. The rostrum or guard is found the most often and possesses a distinctive slit at its ventral surface and a ridge on the dorsal surface. The phragmocone has a small protoconch at its tip, and fit into the cavity and the guard. It also had septa and a ventral siphuncle within the phragmocone, projecting forward as a beak-like blade.
Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy.
Chulpasia is an extinct genus of Eocene marsupial related to today's shrew opossums. It was a small animal, about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, with an omnivorous diet. Its diet probably included seeds, small fruits, and insects. Fossils were found in the Muñani Formation in present-day Peru.
Belosaepiidae is an extinct family of cephalopods known from the Eocene epoch, and bearing close similarity to the sepiid cuttlefish, whilst retaining the remnants of a belemnite-like guard. It is thought that this species was most common for its time.
Duerosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodilian. Remains have been found from Corrales del Vino in Zamora, Spain, and are middle Eocene in age. Duerosuchus is known from a single skull that is incomplete but otherwise well preserved, as well as a lower jaw, some osteoderms, and possibly some vertebrae.
Belemnitida is an extinct order of squid-like cephalopods that existed from the Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous. Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone. The parts are, from the arms-most to the tip: the tongue-shaped pro-ostracum, the conical phragmocone, and the pointy guard. The calcitic guard is the most common belemnite remain. Belemnites, in life, are thought to have had 10 hooked arms and a pair of fins on the guard. The chitinous hooks were usually no bigger than 5 mm (0.20 in), though a belemnite could have had between 100 and 800 hooks in total, using them to stab and hold onto prey.
Puppigerus is an extinct genus of sea turtle from the Eocene. It is known from finds in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, and Uzbekistan.
Buxolestes is an extinct genus of semi-aquatic, non-placental eutherian mammals belonging to the family Pantolestidae. Species in this genus were part of the first placental evolutionary radiation during the Middle Eocene and found in the Bracklesham Group and Wittering Formation of England, at the Messel Pit in Germany and in Bouxwiller, France.
Drazinderetes is a large bodied genus of soft shell turtle from the Middle Eocene Drazinda Formation of Pakistan. Its presence in the shallow marine deposits of the Drazinda Formation suggests that Drazinderetes may have been a partially or fully marine animal. Indetermined trionychine remains from the same formation may suggest that Drazinderetes could have been among the largest known turtles, with one entoplastron indicating a potential length of 1.5 to 2.1 meters. Drazinderetes currently consists of only a single species: Drazinderetes tethyensis.
Notable fossil cephalopods (listed by first occurrence) | |||||||||
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| Cenozoic |
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| Mesozoic |
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| Palaeozoic |
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| Misidentified |
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