My idea how the Belemnoid was made: It was quickly covered up with clay, just like Buckamber, maybe the same time. It died, and the clay dried hard around it. The body disappeared in time leaving a mold of it's body with the design of the Phragmocone in the clay. The guard and the Y didn't disappear. If you look at the top of the tail, you can see a lump of material. This had to be a tunnel (for insects?) going to the surface. Plants grew and liquid from them went down the tube and filled the mold after a long time it hardened and left an exact replica of an extinct Belemoid, with a guard and a Y inside it intact. i guess it could be dated exactly if it was cut open and see what the guard looked like, but I don't think I will run it like that. This is a complete fossil, and I want to keep it as such. People are turned off about this because it is made of a plant plastic, the same as a white Buckamber. 5/98 - Dr. Tonge, Stony Brook University, NY was very helpful by doing an FT-IR test on a white Buckamber, a sample of the Belemnoid fossil (which is white) and a piece of a large flat Buckamber piece that came out of the ocean. He stated that the results are all about the same.

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