Thecideida

Thecideida
Temporal range: Triassic–Recent
Thecideide brachiopod (T), sabellid worm tube (S) and bryozoans (B) on the shell of the bivalve Ctenostreon from the Jurassic of Poland.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Brachiopoda
Class: Rhynchonellata
Order: Thecideida
Elliott, 1958
Superfamilies
  • Thecideoidea
  • Thecospiroidea

Thecideida is an order of cryptic articulate brachiopods characterized by their small size and habit of cementing their ventral valves to hard substrates such as shells, rocks and carbonate hardgrounds. Thecideides first appear in the Triassic (Jaecks and Carlson, 2001) and are common today (Lüter, 2005; Lüter et al., 2007).

Thecidium mediterraneum, A. natural size: B. section through shell (magnified)

Taxonomy

Order Thecideida

References