Belemnitella Americana:
The Belemnitella belongs to the cephalopod class. Modern cephalopods include the squid, octopus, and pearly Nautilus. The belemnoid animal was most closely related to the squid as it had an internal shell covered by a leathery skin, tentacles that pointed forward, and a siphon that expelled water forward thus moving the animal backward by jet propulsion. The internal shell of the belemnoid was cone-shaped and divided into chambers that were gas-filled for maintaining buoyancy in the sea. The chambered shell had a blade-like forward extension that is seldom preserved as a fossil. The most common fossilized part of the internal shell is commonly called the "guards" or "squid tail" consisting of a massive, generally brown-colored, cylindrical structure that encloses the chambered shell and extends to the rear where it tapers to a conical point. The translucent belemnite guards are composed of the mineral calcite, though they are sometimes replaced by vivianite. The guard served as a counter-weight to the buoyancy provided by the chambered shell and also for protection of that delicate shell. Belemnites are common in the exposures of the Navesink Formation, Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago. It can be assumed that if the guards fell to the sandy bottom, they would align themselves to the prevailing currents along the sea bottom perpendicular to the shore thus pointing the way to the ancient shore. This can only be true for specimens that are collected in-situ. (photos are from "www.abc.net.au" "www.urweltmuseum.de" and "www.urweltmuseum.de")
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