Fordilla
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Fordilla Temporal range: Cambrian 520.0–516.0 Ma |
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| F. troyensis; outer shell surface (top) and cast of internal anatomy | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | †Fordillida |
| Family: | †Fordillidae |
| Genus: |
†Fordilla Barrande, 1881 |
| Species | |
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See text |
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See text
Fordilla is an extinct genus of early bivalves, one of two genera in the extinct family Fordillidae. The genus is known solely from Early Cambrian fossils found in North America, Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The genus currently contains three described species, Fordilla germanica, Fordilla sibirica, and the type species Fordilla troyensis.
Fordilla are small bivalves with valves that are equal in size and suboval in shape. In size Fordilla specimens reach a total shell length of up to 4 millimetres (0.16 in) and a height of 25 millimetres (0.98 in). The shells are compressed laterally and the back edge is slightly broadened. The rear adductor is less developed and smaller than the front adductor, while the small pedal retractor muscle scar is positioned near the front adductor scar. The valve hing is usually straight to slightly convexly curved and each valve will have at most one tooth present. The external surface of the shell occasionally show faint ribbing. The inner shell layers of Fordilla species, as with the related genus Pojetaia, consist of layers of carbonate which is akin to the laminar aragonite layer found in extant monoplacophora. The structuring is similar to shell layering found in the extinct genera Anabarella and Watsonella which is thought to suggest members of the phylum Mollusca developed nacre independently several times. Due to the size and age of the fossil specimens, Fordilla are included as part of the Turkish Small shelly fauna.
Described in 1994, F. germanica is the most recent valid species of Fordilla to be described. As the species etymology indicates, the species was first described from strata of the Zwetau Formation in Germany, with the type locality at Görlitz, Saxony. The species is identifiable from the other two Fordilla species by the more elongated shape of the valves, the straight dorsal edge which has a slight tilt, and by the muscle arrangement. The shells reach up to 3.8 millimetres (0.15 in) long, by 1.8 millimetres (0.071 in) wide and 1.1 millimetres (0.043 in) tall. The placement of F. germanica questioned by Geyer and Streng in 1998 who, noting the size of the specimens, moved the species to Pojetaia as P. germanica. This move was rejected by subsequent authors and the species moved back to Fordilla by Elicki in 2009.
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