Lingula tenuis
Lingula tenuis
Summary
Lingula tenuis was an inarticulate brachiopod with a pair of elongate organophosphatic valves and a long fleshy pedicle. Living lingulids occupy vertical burrows in soft sediment, anchoring with the pedicle while holding the shell opening close to the sediment-water interface.
Like other brachiopods it was a suspension feeder, drawing water across a lophophore to collect fine food particles. Its burrowing habit fits the muddy London Clay substrate, and the durable phosphatic valves can survive where more soluble calcareous shells have been lost.
Quick Identification
Look for: a thin, elongate oval to tongue-shaped brachiopod valve with nearly parallel sides, a smooth to finely lined surface and no strong hinge teeth; paired valves are uncommon but especially useful.
Diagnostic Features
- Valve outline elongate and tongue-like rather than strongly triangular or rounded.
- Shell is organophosphatic and comparatively thin.
- Anterior margin broadly rounded, with the greatest width away from the beak.
- Surface ornament is weak, dominated by fine growth lines rather than coarse radial ribs.
- Hinge is inarticulate, lacking the robust interlocking teeth of articulate brachiopods.
Fossil Details
Recorded Fossil Sites
No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.
References
- Tracey, S.; Donovan, S. K.; Clements, D.; Jeffery, P.; Cooper, J.; Rye, P.; Hensley, C. (2002). Temporary exposures of the Eocene London Clay Formation at Highgate, north London: rediscovery of a fossiliferous horizon ‘lost’ since the nineteenth century. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 113(4), 319–331 View reference