Lingulella chengjiangensis

Description

Yunnan Province, China, ~518 million years old. *Lingulella* had a **shell** consisting of upper and lower halves that rested on the sea floor surface, with a long fleshy **stalk** partially buried in the mud to anchor the animal. It filtered particles from the seawater using a spiral-shaped feeding organ, like its modern brachiopod relatives. Brachiopods are relatively rare today but were much more common in the Cambrian. Created for the First Animals exhibition at Oxford University Museum of Natural History: www.oum.ox.ac.uk/firstanimals Model by Mighty Fossils: www.mightyfossils.com