The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China || Phylum Brachiopoda

✍ Scribed by Xian-Guang, Hou; Aldridge, Richard J.; Bergstrm, Jan; Siveter, David J.; Siveter, Derek J.; Xiang-hong, Feng

• Book ID: 102682991
• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
• Year: 2003
• Weight: 921 KB
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 1405106735
• DOI: 10.1002/9780470999950.ch17

✦ Synopsis

The brachiopods are benthic, marine animals with a shell consisting of two valves, termed dorsal and ventral; the ventral valve is usually the slightly larger of the pair. Attachment to the seafloor is often by means of a fleshy stalk or pedicle that extends from the posterior end of the shell, and brachiopods gain their food from suspended organic matter in the water using a delicate filtering organ termed the lophophore. All the brachiopods from the Chengjiang biota are relatively primitive, lacking hingement structures to operate the valves, which are held together in these forms by internal muscle systems. Two subphyla are represented in the Chengjiang biota: the Linguliformea, in which the shell is chitinophosphatic, and the Craniiformea, which have calcareous shells and in which the pedicle is absent or reduced (e.g. Heliomedusa).