What I initially took for extraordinarily long, straight, cylindrical shark's teeth turned out to be fossilized squid bones, found among the pebbles and ancient shells in a stream bed in Colt's Neck, New Jersey. These relics of extinct cuttlefish posteriors, sometimes called squid pens or rostrums, served their extinct bearers as ballast for better swimming. From what I've read they didn't serve for much defense from larger predators since some creatures would swallow the squid whole and vomit the rostrums.
Made of calcite, the rostrums remain intact for eons. On occasion they are found in great abundance, and these spots are called belemnite battlefields, but it turns out they are most likely battlefields of love, where the adult squid die off en masse after spawning. Let's hope that was fun for them, the best thing ever.
7 comments:
I can't help myself, your lovely post makes me think of this Futurama episode.
Thanks, I'll have a look.
Well, I'm embarrassed because your post was so poignant and my comment so goofy, but what can I say, sometimes that's how the mind works...
These are pretty darn cool.
Squid pens!
The mysteries of New Jersey...
"vomit the rostrums"
never was a punk fan but I LUV THAT BAND!!! WURD!!!
rierr: the blind spot, experienced mostly by women but also men, when craning the neck backward to see if that pair of pants makes one's butt look big.
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