: Unlike modern squids with soft bodies, belemnites had a hard internal skeleton. The most common part found today is the rostrum (or guard)—a bullet-shaped feature at the tail end used for buoyancy and balance while swimming.

Long before scientists identified them as fossils, people across Europe and Asia found these pointy stones and created elaborate legends to explain them:

: Because they were often found after heavy rains (which washed away topsoil), ancient Greeks and medieval Europeans believed they were darts from heaven thrown down during thunderstorms.

: While they originated in the Triassic period (about 237 million years ago), they became ocean superstars during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Belemnites were squid-like marine mollusks belonging to the class, making them cousins to modern squids, octopuses, and the extinct ammonites .