Belemnitellid coleoids (Mollusca, Cephalopoda) from the type Maastrichtian, the Netherlands and Belgium

Belemnitellid coleoids abound at some levels within the Gulpen and Maastricht formations in the study area, and ‘belemnite graveyards’ have long been known from the Bovenste Bos (Epen) and Slenaken-Beutenaken areas in southern Limburg, the Netherlands. Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of at least three species of the genus Belemnitella d’Orbigny, 1840, and five of Belemnella Nowak, 1913, and its subgenera Belemnella, Pachybelemnella Schulz, 1979, and Neobelemnella Naidin, 1975. Representatives of Belemnitella junior Nowak, 1913, and Belemnella (Neobelemnella) gr. kazimiroviensis (Skołozdrówna, 1932) are the only coleoids to reach the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary, and members of the latter group may even have persisted into the earliest Paleocene.