Order TEREBRATULIDA

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Introduction

Terebratulida is the dominant living brachiopod order. Its members are distributed worldwide at all latitudes and depths from the intertidal to 5307 m, and show all life styles described for articulates. Thomson (1927) has provided the most comprehensive history of the terebratulides and his outline classification was adopted with additions and slight modification by Muir-Wood et al. (1965), Cooper (1981) and by Foster (1982, 1989). Foster's classification is followed here.

The order comprises two living suborders, the Terebratulidina and the Terebratellidina. All living members are punctate and pediculate. They are differentiated from other articulates by the presence of a calcareous brachidium, commonly called a loop, which supports the lophophore. The suborders are differentiated by features of the loop and by the presence or absence of a median septum on the floor of the dorsal valve.

Occurrence: Lower Devonian to Recent.

General References

Cooper, G.A. 1981. Brachiopoda from the southern Indian Ocean (Recent). Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 43: 1-93

Foster, M.W. 1982. Phylum Brachiopoda. In, Parker, S.P. (ed.). The Classification of Living Organisms. New York : McGraw Hill Vol. 2.

Foster, M.W. 1989. Brachiopodas from the extreme South Pacific and adjacent waters. Journal of Paleontology 63: 33

Muir-Wood, M.M., Elliott, X.F. & Hattai, K. 1965. Mesozoic and Cainozoic Terebratelledina. 41 in Moore, R.C. (ed.). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part H: Brachiopoda. Geological Society of America : University of Kansas Press.

Thomson, J.A. 1927. Brachiopod morphology and genera (Tertiary and Recent). New Zealand Board of Science and Art, Manual 7: 1-388

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