Pedunculotheca is a genus of orthothecid hyolith known from the Chengjiang biota of China, notable for its possession of a pedunculate attachment structure likened to the brachiopod pedicle.[1]

On account of this pedicle and its flattened larval shell, it is reconstructed as the earliest diverging hyolith, and a model for the ancestral morphology of this lineage of stem-group brachiopods.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Sun, Haijing; Smith, Martin R.; Zeng, Han; Zhao, Fangchen; Li, Guoxiang; Zhu, Maoyan (2018). "Hyoliths with pedicles illuminate the origin of the brachiopod body plan". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 285 (1887): 20181780. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.1780. PMC 6170810. PMID 30257914.


No tags for this post.