Here's something I've not come across before; preserved gills in a Dorateuthis. The remaining portion of the gill is 15 mm long (here lying adjacent to the ink sac) and I count 9 gill lamellae on either side of the efferent main vessel.
The whole animal also shows amazing fins, reaching over 5 cm long.
I think this might be a first from Lebanon (at least I can't find anything published), but there are strong similarities with Plesioteuthis prisca from the German Jurassic.
What a fascinating specimen that orthocone is! If those really are arms, how many do you think we are looking at? The trace of the 'arms' seems to extend back into the dark shell area, I'd estimate maybe a total of ten given the width of each structure. If so, it would seemingly place the orthocone closer to the coleoids than Nautilus.
Hi Phil, I only have the image in the book to go by, but it could plausibly be about ten. Mehl (1984) described a Silurian Michelinoceras from Bolivia. Soft body impressions indicated the presence of ten arms and the radula was similar to those of ammonoids and coleoids, but not Nautilus.
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