Tentaculites is an extinct genus of conical fossils of uncertain affinity, class Tentaculita, although it is not the only member of the class. It is known from Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian deposits both as calcitic shells with a brachiopod-like microstructure and carbonaceous 'linings'. The "tentaculites" are also referred to as the styliolinids.
Lingulata is a class of brachiopods, among the oldest of all brachiopods having existed since the Cambrian period. They are also among the most morphologically conservative of the brachiopods, having lasted from their earliest appearance to the present with very little change in shape. Shells of living specimens found today in the waters around Japan are almost identical to ancient Cambrian fossils.
The taxonomic order Rhynchonellida is one of the two main groups of living articulate brachiopods, the other being the order Terebratulida. They are recognized by their strongly ribbed wedge-shaped or nut-like shells, and the very short hinge line.
Lingula is a genus of brachiopods within the class Lingulata. Lingula or forms very close in appearance have existed possibly since the Cambrian. Like its relatives, it has two unadorned organo-phosphatic valves and a long fleshy stalk. Lingula lives in burrows in barren sandy coastal seafloor and feeds by filtering detritus from the water. It can be detected by a short row of three openings through which it takes in water (sides) and expels it again (middle).
Margaret Jope (1913–2004) was a Scottish biochemist, born Henrietta Margaret Halliday in Peterhead, Scotland. She carried out research into brachiopods.
The Craniidae are a family of brachiopods, the only surviving members of the subphylum Craniiformea. They are the only members of the order Craniida, the monotypic suborder Craniidina, and the superfamily Cranioidea; consequently, the latter two taxa are at present redundant and rarely used.There are three living genera within Craniidae: Neoancistrocrania, Novocrania, and Valdiviathyris. As adults, craniids either live freely on the ocean floor or, more commonly, cement themselves onto a hard object with all or part of the ventral valve.
Terebratula is a modern genus of brachiopods with a fossil record dating back to the "Late Devonian". These brachiopods are stationary epifaunal suspension feeders and have a worldwide distribution.
Phoronids are a small phylum of marine animals that filter-feed with a lophophore, and build upright tubes of chitin to support and protect their soft bodies. They live in most of the oceans and seas, including the Arctic Ocean but excluding the Antarctic Ocean, and between the intertidal zone and about 400 meters down. Most adult phoronids are 2 cm long and about 1.5 mm wide, although the largest are 50 cm long.
Brachiopods, phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. Two major categories are traditionally recognized, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods. The word "articulate" is used to describe the tooth-and-groove structures of the valve-hinge which is present in the articulate group, and absent from the inarticulate group. This is the leading diagnostic skeletal feature, by which the two main groups can be readily distinguished as fossils. Articulate brachiopods have toothed hinges and simple, vertically oriented opening and closing muscles. Conversely, inarticulate brachiopods have weak, untoothed hinges and a more complex system of vertical and oblique (diagonal) muscles used to keep the two valves aligned. In many brachiopods, a stalk-like pedicle projects from an opening near the hinge of one of the valves, known as the pedicle or ventral valve. The pedicle, when present, keeps the animal anchored to the seabed but clear of sediment which would obstruct the opening.
The origin of the brachiopods is uncertain; they either arose from reduction of a multi-plated tubular organism, or from the folding of a slug-like organism with a protective shell on either end. Since their Cambrian origin, the phylum rose to a Palaeozoic dominance, but dwindled during the Mesozoic.
Lingulida is an order of brachiopods.
Discinidae is a family in the brachiopod superfamily Discinoidea. Unlike most brachiopods, which have uniformly calcitic or phosphatic shells, modern-day discinids incorporate tablets of silica into their valves. These are covered with vesicles into which the siliceous tablets are cemented, much like a closely packed mosaic, and held together with apatite. These vesicles eventually degrade, but nevertheless still leave an imprint on the shell itself. It has been suggested that this siliceous biomineralisation might also have occurred amongst some of the earliest Paleozoic brachiopods because similar patterns of shell imprints have been observed amongst them too.
Crania is an extinct genus of brachiopods that lived during the Upper Cretaceous.
Pelagodiscus is a monospecific genus of discinid brachiopods. Silica tablets leave a distinctive tesselating imprint on the inner surface of its shell.
Novocrania anomala is a species of brachiopod found offshore in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Mickwitziids are a Cambrian group of shelly fossils with originally phosphatic valves, belonging to the Brachiopod stem group, and exemplified by the genus Mickwitzia – the other genera are Heliomedusa and Setatella. The family Mickwitziidae is conceivably paraphyletic with respect to certain crown-group brachiopods.
Valdiviathyris is a genus of craniate brachiopods that has changed little since the Silurian, from when fossils are known. The extant species V. quenstedti is known from the late Eocene.
Novocrania is a genus of brachiopods found off shore.
Abyssorhynchia is an extant brachiopod genus found in the Pacific Ocean.
