PC: University of Manchester
Linster died in June 2026, but he knew researchers were studying his find and was excited that it would be formally described.
Lippincott said the fossil was unlike anything she had encountered during years of collecting Wyoming’s common Pachyteuthis belemnites, adding that the discovery showed how rockhounds and invertebrate fossil collectors can contribute to science. British palaeontologist Dean Lomax, who had previously collected fossils with Linster and his wife Sandy, said it was “bittersweet” that Linster did not live to see the publication, but that naming the fossil after him would preserve his family name in palaeontology.
For nearly 30 years, an unusually chunky Jurassic fossil lay waiting to reveal what it was. Fossil collector Cliff Linster discovered one of only two known specimens in Wyoming, and his find was donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre in 2019. Scientists have now identified it as Wyoteuthis linsterorum, a previously unknown species of belemnite dating to around 160 million years. After Linster found the second specimen and donated it in 2019, researchers had the two examples needed to recognise and formally describe the animal.
The discovery also revealed a rare surviving branch of an ancient lineage. CT scanning allowed scientists to examine internal structures without damaging the fossils, helping establish their unusual anatomical characteristics and their relationship to the long-lost Megateuthididae lineage.
Unlike the familiar bullet-shaped fossils commonly found in Wyoming, this ancient squid relative had a remarkably broad, barrel-shaped rostrum, earning it the description of the “chunkiest” belemnite ever found. Titled ‘‘ The big chunky belemnite: a new relict megateuthidid from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA, and its place in the evolutionary history of the group, ” the specimen was found in situ in Bighorn County, about six miles south of Hyattville, in a sandstone layer containing smaller belemnites and Camptonectes shells, according to the study published in Wiley. The genus name Wyoteuthis combines Wyoming’s abbreviation with the Greek word for squid, meaning essentially “a squid from Wyoming”, while linsterorum recognises the Linster family.
It came from the upper part of the Redwater Shale, within Wyoming’s Sundance Formation, a geological unit formed when an inland sea covered part of the western United States. The new animal’s scientific name honours Linster and his family. The researchers specifically acknowledged Linster for discovering the holotype and donating it, making the specimen available for scientific study.
