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Description: | Specimen of a fossil brachiopod (lamp shell), Gigantoproductus giganteus, collected from the Carboniferous Limestone of Early Carboniferous, Dinantian, Visean (?) age from Wansbeck River (bed of), Northumberland (NE England).
As its name suggests, this is one of the largest of all brachiopods (lamp shells) and grew up to 35cm wide. It lived partly buried on the sea floor with the convex (outward curving) shell facing downwards. The other shell was flat and acted like a lid. Hollow spines on the outside of the convex shell anchored Gigantoproductus onto soft sea floors. It lived in areas of the sea where the water was clouded with mud and fed on food particles that it filtered out of the water.
The specimen was found in Northumberland.
It is from the Carboniferous period (362 - 290 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia Brachiopoda Invertebrata Articulata | Temporal: | Carboniferous period (362 - 290 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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