Geology / Gallery

Chonetes striatellus (11)

Brachiopods are in the form of the two hinged shell type. A group that was abundant in the Palaeozoic and is important for stratigraphic purposes.

They are also important indicators of climate and sea depth in ancient times. As a sea inundated an area of land the successive layers of sediment contain fossils of brachipods that lived in water of progressively increasing depth.

Brachiopods are benthic (bottom of deep water) marine animals filtering food particles from the water siphoned in between the two protective valves.

This particular brachiopod inunusual by having the spines along the pedicle valve interarea. The shell has a plano-convex shape.

Chonetes striatellus lived in the Wenlock and Ludlow Series of the Silurian found in Shropshire, UK.

Division Name

Phylum Brachiopoda

SubPhylum Rhynchonelliformea

Class Rhynchonellata

Order Strophomenida

SubOrder Chonetidina

Fossil gallery