Fossil Brachiopod Shell Collection of 5 shells

Specimen Size Approximate: assorted to approx 3 cm

Location : Khouribga, Anti Atlas Mountains Morocco

Brachiopods are a type of marine ‘shellfish’ having their soft body enclosed in a pair of shells. 

In this respect they superficially resemble the familiar bivalve molluscs that include clams and mussels, but they are not related to these at all. 

The two shells of brachiopods are different in size (unlike most bivalves), and the similarity in shape of some forms to Roman oil lamps has led to their being sometimes called ‘lamp-shells’. 

Brachiopods may be attached to the sea floor by a variety of means, including a fleshy stalk (called a pedicle), spines, or a kind of cement; or they may lie free on the sediment surface. 

The shell can be opened to allow the animal to pump seawater into it, using a large feathery structure called the lophophore which also filters small food particles from the seawater and extracts oxygen. 

In some types of brachiopods the two shells have an interlocking hinge, but in other types the shells lack a hinge and are simply held together by muscles.