Trachyteuthis hastiformis
I believe this is a fossil cuttlefish, though it was on a list of belemnites,
so that too is a possibility. Belemnites are like squids and cuttlefish, except that at the
top of the squid there is a hard internal cone that is grown throughout the belemnites life,
and it has hooks on the arms and tentacles rather than suckers. Cuttlefish have a "cuttle-bone"
, which is a hard internal bone that stiffens the body, and is probably a remanent from when
most cephalopods had shells.
About this specimen
This is a Trachyteuthis hastiformis from the Moernsheim limestone near Langen-altheim/Solnhofen,
Jurassic.
Above is my fossil Trachyteuthis from the Solnhofen quarry. You can click the picture to
see the enlarged photo. It's about 10 inches long. You can see there are shells in the
center where the stomach is. It must have been eating shelfish. The preservation is spectacular
. You can see spots where the skin cracked before it was fossilized. It is missing the head and
the end where the head would be is folded to the side a bit. Still a pretty good specimen.
Below is a more complete, yet smaller specimen I saw on ebay.
Suggestions?-email me.