Brachiopods
| Brachiopod Temporal range: Lower Cambrian–Recent |
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| Lingula anatina from Stradbroke Island, Australia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| (unranked): | Spiralia |
| Superphylum: | Lophotrochozoa |
| Clade: | Brachiozoa |
| Phylum: |
Brachiopoda Duméril, 1806 |
| Subphyla and classes | |
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See taxonomy |
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| Diversity | |
| About 100 living genera. About 5,000 fossil genera. |
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See taxonomy
Brachiopods, phylum Brachiopoda, are a group of lophotrochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. Two major groups are recognized, articulate and inarticulate. Articulate brachiopods have toothed hinges and simple opening and closing muscles, while inarticulate brachiopods have untoothed hinges and a more complex system of muscles used to keep the two halves aligned. In a typical brachiopod a stalk-like projects from an opening in one of the valves near the hinges, known as the pedicle valve, keeping the animal anchored to the seabed but clear of silt that would obstruct the opening.
The word "brachiopod" is formed from the Ancient Greek words βραχίων ("arm") and πούς ("foot"). They are often known as "lamp shells", since the curved shells of the class Terebratulida look rather like pottery oil-lamps.
Lifespans range from three to over thirty years. Ripe gametes (ova or sperm) float from the gonads into the main coelom and then exit into the mantle cavity. The larvae of inarticulate brachiopods are miniature adults, with lophophores that enable the larvae to feed and swim for months until the animals become heavy enough to settle to the seabed. The planktonic larvae of articulate species do not resemble the adults, but rather look like blobs with yolk sacs, and remain among the plankton for only a few days before leaving the water column upon metamorphosing.
In addition to the traditional classification of brachiopods into inarticulate and articulate, two approaches appeared in the 1990s: one approach groups the inarticulate Craniida with articulate brachiopods, since both use the same material in the mineral layers of their shell; the other approach makes the Craniida a third group, as their outer organic layer is different from that in either of the other two. However, some taxonomists believe it is premature to suggest higher levels of classification such as order and recommend a bottom-up approach that identifies genera and then groups these into intermediate groups. Traditionally, brachiopods have been regarded as members of, or as a sister group to, the deuterostomes, a superphylum that includes chordates and echinoderms. One type of analysis of the evolutionary relationships of brachiopods has always placed brachiopods as protostomes while another type has split between placing brachiopods among the protostomes or the deuterostomes.
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Wikipedia