Composita brachiopod. The shells look like spheres just emerging from the grey matrix which surrounds them. There are folds / valleys in all of the fossils. Visible on the surface are concentric rings. To the top left is a portion of a pocket knife, showing that the fossil is just a few centimetres across.

Composita brachiopod. The shells look like spheres just emerging from the grey matrix which surrounds them. There are folds / valleys in all of the fossils.

Composita brachiopod. The shells look like spheres just emerging from the grey matrix which surrounds them. There are folds / valleys in all of the fossils. This picture has several circles drawn around the beekite to highlight them.

This week's fossil is a Composita brachiopod from the Carboniferous Banff Formation in Kananaskis!

The concentric circles (beekite) occur when the soft calcite / aragonite of the shell is replaced with more resistant silicate minerals.

#fossilfriday #palaeontology #fossils #brachiopods #alberta

Combining soft-bodied and three-dimensional fossils to reveal evolutionary modifications in early lingulellotretid brachiopods - Communications Biology Tubular lingulellotretid brachiopods, exemplifying a short-lived evolutionary experiment during the Cambrian explosion, gave way to the more efficient tongue-shaped body plan of lingulides by the evol...

🐚Tubular lingulellotretid #brachiopods, exemplifying a short-lived evolutionary experiment during the Cambrian explosion, gave way to the more efficient tongue-shaped body plan of lingulides by the evolutionary reduction of pseudointerarea.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Triops in a puddle on a dirt road, Doña Ana County, NM 😍
#triops #brachiopods #chihuahuandesert #ecology

Check out this beautiful specimen from the #Bellevue Formation. Got some tiny 550ish million years old #gastropods hanging out with some #brachiopods and #bryozoans

Fossil Friday #7: Brachiopods From The Silica Shale in Ohio #fossils #fossil #Brachiopods #FossilFriday This is the "Fossil Friday" post #7.  Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website.  We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Please include a short description or story.  Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! ----------------------------------------------------- Today's fossils for Fossil Friday are brachiopods from the Silica Shale in Ohio.  The Silica Shale dates to the Middle Devonian Period about 390 million years ago.  During the Devonian, North America occupied a much more southern position on Earth than today.  This rock formation is part of the Michigan Basin, which was slowly subsiding during this time.  Meanwhile, to the east the Acadian Mountains were being formed as part of the Acadian Orogeny.  Pulses of fine sediment were laid down in the Michigan Basin to help create the beautiful fossils found around Toledo, Ohio.

Fossil Friday #7: Brachiopods From The Silica Shale in Ohio #fossils #fossil #Brachiopods #FossilFriday

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #7.  Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website.  We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Please include a short…

#Brachiopods (/ˈbrækioʊˌpɒd/), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rea

#Brachiopods (/ˈbrækioʊˌpɒd/), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rea

Happy #FossilFriday
Check out this beautiful #horncoral from #Kentucky that's infilled with sediment hiding a few #brachiopods n #bryozoans
#ordovician
#rugosa

A small, irregularly shaped slab of limestone is being held by hand in the raking sunlight. The flat surface, stained pale orange by iron minerals, shows a series of straight parallel grooves or scratches -- these are glacial striations cut by the passage of abrasive rock fragments and mineral grains embedded in the sole of the glacier. Numerous fossil fragments are seen on the slab surface. Some of these have been ground through at various angles and show as complete or partial cross sections. Other fragments (lower left and far right) have escaped glacial sectioning and still stand in relief.

Close up of the glacially polished slab surface showing several medium- and high-spired gastropods in section, as well as the outlines of rhynchonellid brachiopods.

More of the same surface with sections through trepostome bryozoans and a planispiral gastropod.

Current events call for a "don't let the bastards grind you down" kind of post. These #Ordovician #bryozoans, #brachiopods & #gastropods entered the #fossilrecord ~450 MYA only to be scoured by a Pleistocene glacier. Be like these #fossils - endure! Verulam Fm, Ramara Tp, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #FossilFriday

Throwback Thursday #263: Looking Back At ESCONI For May 2025 #TBT #history #throwbackthursday #fossils #sylvania #silurian #brachiopods #cyctoids #trilobites #crinoids

www.esconi.org/esconi_earth...

ESCONI Field Trip to Napoleon Quarry in Napoleon Indiana - May 31st, 2025 #fieldtrip #indiana #silurian #ordovician #cystoids #trilobites #brachiopods

www.esconi.org/esconi_earth...

Li/Ca of modern brachiopods: A potential paleoseawater thermometer Lithium in marine carbonates may hold key information about their temperature of formation and thus of the thermal history of ambient seawater. Here, …

Enjoyed reading about this nice study @Palaeo3 about the relationship between Li/Ca ratios in #brachiopods and #temperature. The #dataset looks very robust and the empirical relationship highly promising for #paleoclimate #reconstructions!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fossil seafloor assemblage composed of a pavement of numerous small brachiopod shells, including Gotatrypa, Coolenia & Eocoelia. Amongst the brachiopods are scattered trilobite sclerites (calymenids & encrinurines), small favositid corals, snails, and crinoid columnals. The image shows an area about 30 cm across.

Close up view of the fossil assemblage showing a calymenid trilobite cranidium (upside down) and pygidium, nestled among brachiopods, corals, and other trilobite fragments.

Close up view of assemblage showing a small low-spired gastropod shell and an encrinurine trilobite pygidium surrounded by brachiopod valves.

Close up view of fossils assemblage with a short section of articulated crinoid stalk, small gastropods, favositid corals, and trilobite fragments.

#Fossils on @bsky.app are my bulwark against the current madness & #FossilFriday is a keystone in the wall. This week: more #brachiopods (mostly Gotatrypa) from the #Silurian (~435 MYA) of Anticosti Is., Quebec 🇨🇦 in company w #trilobites, #gastropods, #corals & #crinoids; brachs average ~2 cm across

🐚 Ethel Wood was a 20th-century paleontologist whose meticulous research on #brachiopods helped refine how we date rock layers and understand prehistoric marine life.

A colleague posted yesterday that #brachiopods are under-appreciated #fossils & I agree! Amazingly diverse, abundant & often well-preserved, they are important members of the Phanerozoic marine realm. This is Hindella prinstana -- #Ordovician (~445 MYA), Anticosti Is, #Quebec #Canada 🇨🇦 #FossilFriday

Terebratulide brachiopods (unseen rulers of the deep) in an aquarium exhibit featuring deep sea corals, of which there are a few in this picture, as well as the dedrochirotid holothurian, Psolus, some weird scaly sea cucumber.

Brachiopods and other deep sea creatures sitting on some rocks

A lone brachiopod, some deep sea corals, and fancy sea cucumbers in an aquarium exhibit

Brachiopods at the @montereyaq.bsky.social deep sea exhibit #brachiopods

Terebratulide brachiopods (unseen rulers of the deep) in an aquarium exhibit featuring deep sea corals, of which there are a few in this picture, as well as the dedrochirotid holothurian, Psolus, some weird scaly sea cucumber.

Brachiopods and other deep sea creatures sitting on some rocks

A lone brachiopod, some deep sea corals, and fancy sea cucumbers in an aquarium exhibit

Brachiopods at the @montereyaq.bsky.social deep sea exhibit #brachiopods

A rock with several brachiopod fossils embedded in it (a coquina) dating to Upper Silurian times. USB for scale.

A rock with several brachiopod fossils embedded in it (a coquina) dating to Upper Silurian times. USB for scale.

A coquina of Delthyris (spiriferid) #brachiopods from the Upper #Silurian:

a cartoon drawing of a blue object with a purple background . ALT: a cartoon drawing of a blue object with a purple background .

...which was also stronger for #brachiopods, thought to be more vulnerable, than the #bivalves...

Like my lump of #fossilised #brachiopods which happens to look like the skull of #crocodilia?
@stevebrusatte.bsky.social

Happy #FossilFriday
Here is an amazing sample of #Ordovician limestone (probably from the Kope Formation) preserving a range of taxa that includes #gastropods, #crinoids, #brachiopods #bryozoa and #trilobites

Brachiopods (/ˈbrækioʊˌpɒd/), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod

#Brachiopods (/ˈbrækioʊˌpɒd/), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod

Throwback Monday #240: Happy Veterans Day from ESCONI... and the Field Museum! #fossils #paleontology #VeteransDay #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #history #WWII #FieldMuseum @FieldMuseum @SUEtheTrex #brachiopods

www.esconi.org/esconi_earth...

My #FossilFriday contribution: #brachiopods in the 200 million year-old #Jurassic #BonanzaFormation on Amos Island in Kyuquot Sound off the north-western coast of #VancouverIsland #BritishColumbia