lamp shells: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	brachiopod • Brachiopoda

Photos

brachiopod fossils

Illustration of various early sea animals on an ocean floor, including jellyfish, ammonites, crinoids, sponges, trilobites, brachiopods, sea scorpions, and a sea snail, with each species labeled.

Illustration of an early Silurian coral-stromatoporoid community showing various labeled marine organisms, including corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, crinoids, trilobites, and a nautiloid, arranged on and around a block of seafloor substrate with a scale bar indicating centimeters.

Silurian Pentamerus community

Line graph showing the number of marine animal families from the Precambrian era to the present, with illustrations of key groups such as trilobites, ammonoids, marine reptiles, and diatoms. The graph highlights major extinction events and a rise to 1,900 living families today.

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Topics

Inarticulata Articulata Eocelia Tuvaella Stricklandia Tetractinella Atrypa Neospirifer Chonetes Dielasma annelid echinoderm sponge flatworm cnidarian arthropod mollusk moss animal Chordate beard worm

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Silurian Period: Brachiopods

Key People

Davidson, Thomas

Thomas Davidson

Scottish paleontologist

Lion (panthera leo)

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The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is seen in Switzerland on December 2024

Animal Factoids

Mute swan with cygnet. (birds)

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Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters

Animal Group Names