Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-2n9c9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T21:58:14.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Physiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

Lloyd S. Peck*
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET England, UK
Get access

Extract

Brachiopods are one of the few phyla to have lived in the world's oceans for the last 550 million years, since early Cambrian times. For much of that time they were the dominant shelled form in marine aquatic environments. Throughout all of this time their physiological structure has remained unchanged, and for some extant species their external anatomy is remarkably similar to early Cambrian forms (e.g., some inarticulated lingulids and some articulated rhynchonellides). They perform all of the basic physiological functions common to the vast majority of marine ectotherms, namely feeding, growth, reproduction, and metabolic and excretory processes. Their bodies are enclosed by two unequal shells, which are oriented dorsally and ventrally, as opposed to the lateral, equal shells in bivalve molluscs. The ventral valve in articulated species has a characteristic opening for the pedicle to pass through. In some articulated brachiopods the shells are traversed by many extensions of the mantle tissue called caeca (e.g., in Waltonia inconspicua, or Terebratulina retusa), while in others the shells form a continuous solid integument (e.g., rhynchonellides such as Notosaria nigricans). The former are the punctate brachiopods and the latter are impunctate species.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable