The end of the Cambrian saw a series of mass extinctions during which many shell-dwelling brachiopods and other animals went extinct. The trilobites also suffered heavy losses.

Early Cambrian fossils reveal how a small ... a tiny animal distantly related to modern brachiopod bivalves. Thousands of L.

These layers of sedimentary rock were deposited in Cambrian time, when another shallow sea covered this region. Among the fossilized remains found within these layers are brachiopods, trilobites ...

Ventral view of Mucrospirifer, a fossil brachiopod, showing the characteristically wing-like shell. This Devonian specimen from Ohio is 3.5cm wide. Brachiopod hard parts have excellent preservation ...

She adds that besides extinct species, there are also fossils of species still alive today, such as Lingulella chengjiangensis, a widespread Cambrian lingulid brachiopod (a kind of marine mollusk ...

Nearby brachiopods (bottom center) and the spiny sponge Choia (center middle) are common in many Cambrian environments. In the background is the hemichordate Oesia, which lived in perforated tubes.

Cambrian ellipsocephaloid trilobites from ... The pyroclastic flow even preserved tiny brachiopods — tiny creatures resembling clams, which clung to the shells of trilobites in an epibiotic ...