Marine invertebrates with bivalve dorsal and ventral shells (like a clam) and a pair of tentacled, armlike structures on either side of the mouth
(Lampshells) These sea creatures have two shells (called valves). One valve is usually larger than the other. The top of one valve will curl over the top of the second. This gives them an “oil lamp” shape. Some shells are smooth while others have ridges and grooves that radiate out from the middle of the hinge. Brachiopods are common in rocks of Cambrian to Carboniferous age.
Also known as lamp shells. A group (phylum) of marine invertebrates with a two-valved shell. During adult life, many brachiopods are attached to the sea-bed by a stalk or by one shell. They were very abundant in the oceans of the Palaeozoic Era.
The difference between these bivalves is the dissimilarity in the two shells. These forms ranged in the geological column from the Cambrian down to the present. The phylum Brachiopoda is divided into two classes. Class Inarticulata includes the primitive, "unhinged" brachiopods, while the class Articulata possesses a well-developed hinge structure for articulation of the valves.
A group of clam-like marine invertebrates separated into the Articulata and the Inarticulata based on shell morphology Geologic Range: Cambrian to Recent
A phylum of hinge-shelled animals that have left an excellent fossil record; brachiopods live on or in the ocean floor.
sedentary marine with uneven sized upper and lower valves for shells
marine invertebrate animals in which the soft parts are enclosed by two shells, called valves.
A group of marine shellfish capable of living in fresh and saline water. These creatures were among the first to evolve in the Early Cambrian.
