Alternate title: lingulida

lingulid, any member of a group of brachiopods, or lamp shells, that includes very ancient extinct forms as well as surviving representatives. First known from Cambrian rocks (about 542 million to 488 million years old), they probably originated during Precambrian time. The lingulids are small, inarticulate brachiopods; their shells are unhinged and consist of chitinous (fingernail-like) material. A modern genus, Lingula, is found in normal marine environments but is most common in muddy, brackish water that is poor in oxygen and generally unsuited to most organisms. The genus Lingulella is a fossil form known from the Cambrian and was similar in appearance and structure to the modern Lingula. Lingulepis, a related genus more or less restricted to the Late Cambrian, differs from other lingulids in appearance; it is more teardrop in form. The lingulids are useful fossils for the environmental information that they provide; they are of little use for stratigraphic correlations. The lingulids were an important component of Cambrian brachiopod faunas.

What made you want to look up lingulid?
(Please limit to 900 characters)
Please select the sections you want to print
Select All
MLA style:
"lingulid". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
APA style:
lingulid. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
Harvard style:
lingulid. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 26 December, 2014, from
Chicago Manual of Style:
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "lingulid", accessed December 26, 2014,


Editing Tools:
We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.

Or click Continue to submit anonymously: