Aemula

Aemula Temporal range: Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Brachiopoda
Subphylum:	Rhynchonelliformea
Class:	Rhynchonellata
Order:	Terebratulida
Suborder:	Terebratellidina
Superfamily:	Platidioidea
Family:	Platidiidae
Genus:	†Aemula Sepkoski, 2002 Williams et al., 2006
Species
†Aemula inusitata

Aemula is an extinct genus of brachiopods that lived during the Cretaceous period. The pedunculate brachiopod species Aemula inusitata had lived on the bodies of larger animals which served for enough feeding surface, since no large attachment sites were available on the Maastrichtian chalk of the sea floor (Gould, 1977, p. 333). It was a very small animal, having a maximum length of 7 mm, and is believed to have been short lived as interpreted from its growth lines (Surlyk, 1974; Gould, 1977, p. 332).

References

• Gould, Stephen J. (1977). Ontogeny and phylogeny. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
• Sepkoski, J. J. (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 363: 1–560 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/M. Carrano].
• Surlyk, Finn (1974). "Life habit, feeding mechanism and population structure of the Cretaceous brachiopod genus Aemula". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 15: 185–203. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(74)90014-5.
• Williams, A.; Brunton, C.H.C.; Baker, S.J. P.G. Carlson; Carter, J.L.; Curry, G.B.; Dagys, A.S.; Gourvennec, R.; Hou, H.F.; Jin, Y.G.; Johnson, J.G.; MacKinnon, D.I.; Racheboeuf, P.R.; Smirnova, T.N.; Sun, D.L. (2006). "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part H, Brachiopoda". Rhynchonelliformea (part) 5: 1689–2320 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham].

External links

• Aemula in the Paleobiology Database