| belem |
| Belem |
| belem | (n) port city in northern Brazil in the Amazon delta; main port and commercial center for the Amazon River basin, Syn. St. Mary of Bethlehem, Santa Maria de Belem, Para, Feliz Lusitania |
| belemnite | (n) a conical calcareous fossil tapering to a point at one end and with a conical cavity at the other end containing (when unbroken) a small chambered phragmocone from the shell of any of numerous extinct cephalopods of the family Belemnitidae |
| belemnitic | (adj) of or relating to belemnites |
| belemnitidae | (n) family of extinct Mesozoic cephalopods, Syn. family Belemnitidae |
| belemnoidea | (n) order of extinct dibranchiate cephalopods related to the surviving spirulas, Syn. order Belemnoidea |
| Belemnite | n. [ Gr. &unr_; dart, fr. &unr_; dart, fr. &unr_; to throw: cf. F. bélemnite. ] (Paleon.) 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. -- |
| Belemnoidea | n. an order of extinct dibranchiate cephalopods related to the surviving spirulas. |
