All About Fossils: Belemnites and Exogyra costata

We went to the Delaware Canal and found a lot of belemnites (286) on our first day. They are all displayed in the photo above.

Belemnites are small prehistoric squid that swam in earth’s oceans during the late Cretaceous period, around 144 million years ago. They preyed on small shrimp in the water. Their predators include large prehistoric sharks named Hybodus hauffianus, that sometimes ate so many that fossils of belemnites inside sharks have been found.

The pieces we find now are tails. It is a bit tricky because they swim backwards, but it is what is between the fins at the other end of the mantle from where the arms and tentacles are. Here is my biggest one:

Here is a picture of the full fossil (the “tail” is on the left).

I can now tell you the story of how I found my very first belemnite. I was walking and climbing cliffs and digging. Then I found a mountain area and started to climb. I put sticks on the top to let the others see who climbed those mountains. Then, I saw something amber colored sticking out of the rock. I came closer. It was a BELEMNITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I showed everyone, and there was a fossil wave. Every minute, someone was finding a large amount of fossils!

So we collected until the bags got full and we headed home.

We only expected to find belemnites, but we also found some prehistoric shells! One of them is Exogyra costata:

But we also found another different species of shell. We were super lucky because we opened it and found fossilized mollusk meat!

The whole time at the fossil site was great, and 50% luck. The luck is that we found a fish skeleton on the road, and I found an eagle vertebrae. Those animal remains were not fossils. I also chased white-crowned sparrows and made cacti mush. I also found a gull skeleton and took it apart. These are the bones I collected: