Thecideida

Thecideida Temporal range: Triassic–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
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
See text.

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

• Superfamily Thecideoidea Gray 1840
• Superfamily Thecospiroidea Bittner 1890

References

• Paleobiology Database on thecideides

• Jaecks, G.S.; Carlson, S.J. (2001). "How phylogenetic inference can shape our view of heterochrony: examples from thecideide brachiopods". Paleobiology 27 (2): 205–225. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2001)027<0205:hpicso>2.0.co;2. 

• Lüter, C. (2005). "The first Recent species of the unusual brachiopod Kakanuiella (Thecideidae) from New Zealand deep waters". Systematics and Biodiversity 3: 105–111. doi:10.1017/s1477200004001598. 

• Lüter, C.; Hoffmann, J.; Logan, A. (2007). "Cryptic speciation in the Recent thecideide brachiopod Thecidellina in the Atlantic and the Caribbean". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 98: 405–413. doi:10.1017/s1755691007078449.