Life and death in the Jurassic seas of Dorset, Southern England

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The Jurassic succession of the Wessex Basin, especially that cropping out along the Dorset Coast, contains important Lagerstätten for coleoid cephalopods. The Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone formations have, since the nineteenth century, provided large numbers of important body fossils that inform our knowledge of coleoid palaeontology. In many of these mudstones specimens of palaeobiological significance have been found, especially those with the arms and hooks with which the living animals caught their prey. This is particularly true in the case of a specimen of Clarkeiteuthis sp. cf. C. montefiorei (Buckman, 1879) found in the nineteenth century with a fish in its jaws and which appears to have caused the death, and subsequent preservation, of both animals.