''Beecheria'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of brachiopod belonging to the order Terebratulida and family Beecheriidae. Fossils of this genus have been found in

Mississippian Mississippian may refer to: * Mississippian (geology), a subperiod of the Carboniferous period in the geologic timescale, roughly 360 to 325 million years ago *Mississippian culture, a culture of Native American mound-builders from 900 to 1500 AD ...

to Permian beds in Eurasia, Australia, North America, and South America. The genus was part of the '' Levipustula'' fauna characteristic of cold water conditions. "Nests" of ''Beecheria'' have been found in fossil low temperature

hydrothermal vent A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

communities from the early

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

in Newfoundland.

Species

*''B. angusta'' Netschajew 1894 *''B. boranelensis'' Peou and Engel 1979 *''B. chouteauensis'' Weller 1914 *''B. curva'' Smirnova 2009 *''B. elliptica'' Cooper and Grant 1976 *''B. expansa'' Cooper and Grant 1976 *''B. kargaliensis'' Smirnova 2007 *''B. lidarensis'' Diener 1915 *''B. magna'' Jin and Ye 1979 *''B. netschajewi'' Grigor'yeva 1967 *''B. samarica'' Smirnova 2007

References

Paleozoic life Spiriferida {{Brachiopod-stub