80 articles
Acoelomorpha
Acoelomorpha (Acoela + Nemertodermatida) are tiny acoelomate marine worms, once placed in Platyhelminthes but now an early-branching bilaterian clade within Xenacoelomorpha, lacking anus, nephridia, and circulatory system.
Athyris
Athyris (McCoy, 1844) is an extinct smooth-shelled brachiopod genus, type of Athyrididae and the order Athyridida, widespread in Devonian and Lower Carboniferous seas, with type species Terebratula concentrica Buch, 1834.
Atrypa
Atrypa, Dalman 1828, extinct genus of spire-bearing atrypid brachiopods; type species Atrypa reticularis (Linnaeus 1758); Silurian to Devonian fossil lamp shell known worldwide.
Bilateria
Bilateria: the clade of triploblastic, bilaterally symmetric animals, spanning Protostomia and the contested Deuterostomia, defined by Hox-patterning of the anterior-posterior axis, with trace fossils younger than about 560 Ma.
Borealis
Borealis, Latin for northern, names an extinct Early Silurian pentamerid brachiopod genus (type species Gypidia borealis) and appears in many other taxa, including the sei whale Balaenoptera borealis and the dinosaur Albertonykus borealis.
Brachiopod
Brachiopods (lamp shells) are marine lophophorates with two valves, vertically symmetrical unlike bivalves. About 30,000 fossil species, roughly 385 living; Paleozoic dominant, declined after the end-Permian extinction.
Bryozoa
Bryozoa (ectoprocts, moss animals): colonial aquatic filter-feeding lophophorates built of zooids with a lophophore; 6,549 extant species, Ordovician fossil record, disputed Cambrian Protomelission origin, three major radiations.
Camarotoechia
Camarotoechia (Hall & Clarke, 1894) is an extinct rhynchonellid brachiopod genus from Paleozoic strata, family Camarotoechiidae; PBDB range Ordovician to Permian, strict sense Upper Devonian, suspension-feeding with ribbed, folded shell.
Chonetes
Chonetes (Fischer de Waldheim, 1830) is an extinct genus of small chonetid brachiopods, Late Ordovician to Middle Jurassic, with a straight hinge, hollow ventral spines, and many species later reassigned to Neochonetes, Fusichonetes, and other genera.
Chordodes formosanus
Chordodes formosanus, a horsehair worm (Nematomorpha, Gordiida) described in 2011 from Taiwan and Japan, parasitizes Hierodula mantids; distinguished from C. japonensis by female crowned-areole filaments and COI distance 0.16840.
Christiania
Christiania is an extinct Ordovician brachiopod genus (Hall & Clarke 1892, family Christianiidae), type species Leptaena subquadrata, a cosmopolitan deep-water suspension feeder; also the former name of Oslo in 19th-century geology.
Clorinda
Clorinda (Barrande, 1879) is an extinct pentameride brachiopod genus, type species C. armata, living Silurian (Rhuddanian) to Middle Devonian (Givetian) across Europe, Asia, North America, Greenland, Australia, and North Africa, and namesake of the deep-water Clorinda Community.
Coenothyris
Coenothyris Douvillé, 1879 is an extinct Triassic terebratulid brachiopod genus (type species C. vulgaris Schlotheim, 1820), abundant in Muschelkalk marker beds, with preserved color banding and species such as C. oweni from Israel.
Composita
Composita is an extinct genus of smooth-shelled athyroid brachiopods (type species Composita subtilita) ranging from the Late Devonian or Early Mississippian to the Permian, defined by a terebratuloid shell shape with a spiriferoid spiral brachidium, and known for strongly intergrading named species.
Cyrtospirifer
Cyrtospirifer (type species Spirifer verneuili) is an extinct Devonian spiriferid brachiopod genus, family Cyrtospiriferidae, ranging from middle Givetian to lower Famennian and used as an Upper Devonian index fossil.
Dalmanella
Dalmanella is an extinct dalmanellid orthide brachiopod genus, type species D. testudinaria from the Hirnantian of Sweden, a cool-water Hirnantia Fauna element, Ordovician to Early Silurian.
Deep-sea gigantism
Deep-sea gigantism (abyssal gigantism): deep-ocean animals growing larger than shallow-water relatives, seen in giant isopods, giant and colossal squids, and supergiant amphipods; attributed to cold, scarce food, low predation, and oxygen, though not universal across taxa.
Dictyoclostus
Dictyoclostus is an extinct productid brachiopod genus named by Muir-Wood (1930), type species Anomites semireticulatus Martin, 1809; large reticulate, spined shells from Devonian to Permian marine rocks.
Dicyemida
Dicyemida (Rhombozoa), formerly classed as Mesozoa, are tiny parasites of cephalopod kidneys with about 30-cell bodies, a reduced 67.5 Mb genome, and a disputed spiralian phylogeny.
Dielasma
Dielasma (King, 1859) is an extinct genus of terebratulid brachiopods, type species Terebratulites elongatus, ranging Upper Mississippian to Upper Triassic, cosmopolitan, with a dorsal-valve loop.
Diplograptus
Diplograptus, an extinct biserial graptolite genus (family Diplograptidae, phylum Hemichordata) named by McCoy in 1850, type species D. pristis, ranging Middle Ordovician to Early Silurian across Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.
Elita
Elita (Fredericks, 1918) is an extinct Devonian brachiopod genus in family Elythidae, order Spiriferida; type species Elita fimbriata (Conrad, 1842), a spine-bearing index fossil of eastern North America, also known from China, Russia, and Colombia.
Emanuella
Emanuella, also spelled Emuella (a separate trilobite genus), is an extinct Devonian brachiopod genus in family Ambocoeliidae, order Spiriferida, named by Grabau 1925; stationary suspension feeder, 393–359 Ma.
Fenestella
Fenestella is an extinct fenestrate bryozoan genus named by Lonsdale in 1839, type species F. antiqua, forming netlike lace colonies from the Ordovician to the Permian; validated by ICZN Opinion 622 in 1962 after a bivalve homonym.
Gastrotrich
Gastrotricha, hairy-bellied worms, a phylum of about 900 microscopic acoelomate meiofaunal worms in two orders, Chaetonotida and Macrodasyida, sister to Platyhelminthes, feeding via a triradiate pharynx.
Hysterolites
Hysterolites (Hysterolites hystericus) is an extinct Lower Devonian spiriferid brachiopod genus named by Schlotheim in 1820, family Hysterolitidae, recorded from Spain, Belgium, Germany, Uzbekistan, and Yukon.
Icriodus
Icriodus, conodont genus named by Branson and Mehl in 1938 (type species I. expansus), an Emsian to Famennian index fossil with three-rowed spindle elements marking shallow-water Devonian biofacies.
Invertebrate
Invertebrate: any animal lacking a backbone, all animals outside subphylum Vertebrata of phylum Chordata. About 90-99% of animal species; insects, molluscs, crustaceans, worms; found in every ecosystem.
Kullervo
Kullervo (Kullervo Öpik, 1932) is an extinct Ordovician clitambonitidine brachiopod genus of the family Gonambonitidae, known from Eurasia and North America, 466–443 Ma, with 11 species; distinct from the Kalevala figure and Tolkien's story.
Leptaena
Leptaena is an extinct genus of strophomenide brachiopods, marine shellfish, that lived from the Middle Ordovician into the Early Devonian and is found worldwide, especially in Silurian rocks.