25/10/2019 · Only 5% of all brachiopod species to ever exist still survive today, while 95% have gone extinct. Members from the orders Lingulata, Rhynconellida, and Terebratulida are among those that exist today. Below are a few examples of some of these living brachiopods, which will be explained in more detail on the next page.

Brachiopods range in size from 1 mm to 9 cm in length, and all known species are solitary, benthic, marine animals with a two part shell (valve); the valves of Inarticulata species are attached only by muscles, while the valves of Articulata species have a tooth-and-socket hinge. In the past 20 years, new classification systems based on more rigorous phylogenetic analyses …

Brachiopods, or lampshells, are a phylum of small marine animals with a two-valved shell that, at first glance, resemble bivalved mollusks such as clams. The resemblance, however, is quite superficial. The orientation of the shells of brachiopods is very different from that of bivalved mollusks, and brachiopods have two additional structures ...

Only about 300 to 500 species of brachiopods exist today, a small fraction of the perhaps 15,000 species (living and extinct) that make up the phylum Brachiopoda. Brachiopod shells come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Sometimes the bottom valve is convex like the top valve, but in many species the bottom valve is concave or occasionally conical.

Brachiopod: Lingula anatina (PRI 76882) by Digital Atlas of Ancient Life on Sketchfab. Recent specimen of the brachiopod Lingula anatina from the Phillipines (PRI 76882). Specimen is from the collections of the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, New York. Longest dimension of specimen is approximately 6 cm.