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Description: | Specimen of a fossil brachiopod (lamp shell), Spiriferellina cristata, collected from the Ford Formation (reef facies) of Late Permian, Zechstein (Durham Province), EZ1 age from Humbledon Hill, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear (NE England). Collected by James Walter Kirkby.
This brachiopod (lamp shell) has a very small shell. This is because the Zechstein Sea, where these shellfish lived 250 million years ago, was very salty, which made life difficult for some of the animals that lived in it. This brachiopod lived on a reef, a community teeming with life, on a ridge close to and parallel to the coast. It used a pedicle, a long thin muscle that came out of a tiny hole at the top of the shell, to fix itself to the surface of the reef. These creatures often lived in groups, known as 'nests'.
The specimen was found in Tyne and Wear.
It is from the Permian period (290 - 248 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Kirkby, James Walter Classification: Animalia, Invertebrata, Brachiopoda, Articulata | Temporal: | Permian period (290 - 248 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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