Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Belemnite

Belemnite ({not transcribed}) , noun

[Greek {not transcribed} dart, from {not transcribed} dart, from {not transcribed} to throw: compare French bélemnite.]

(Paleontology) A conical calcareous fossil, tapering to a point at the lower extremity, with a conical cavity at the other end, where it is ordinarily broken; but when perfect it contains a small chambered cone, called the phragmocone, prolonged, on one side, into a delicate concave blade; the thunderstone. It is the internal shell of a cephalopod related to the sepia, and belonging to an extinct family. The belemnites are found in rocks of the Jurassic and Cretaceous ages.