Kingdom Animalia Suborder Delthyridina Family Hysterolitidae Rank Genus | Class Rhynchonellata Superfamily Delthyridoidea Phylum Brachiopoda Order Spiriferida | |
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Similar Spiriferida, Mucrospirifer, Cyrtospirifer, Aulopora, Atrypa | ||
Paraspirifer is a genus of large brachiopods (up to about 7.5 centimetres or 3.0 inches) that lived during the late Lower and Middle Devonian in what now are Germany, Spain, Morocco and the United States (New York State and Ohio).
Contents
Taxonomy
Paraspirifer developed from Brachyspirifer during the early upper Emsian (cancellata-elegans/Dalehe Event).
Distribution
Paraspirifer originated in the lower upper Emsian and became extinct in Europe and Northern Africa at the end of the lower Eifelian. It survived into the Givetian in North America though.
Ecology
From the type of deposits that contain Paraspirifer bownockeri it can be deduced that this species inhabited soft clay mudflats. Shells of this species hosted a wide range of epibionts, such as bryozoans, corals, echinoderms, annelid worms and other brachiopods. These epibionts are more numerous on the brachial valve than on the pedunculate valve, because this big brachiopod lay on its pedunculate valve after the degeneration of the stalk.
