''Chlidonophora'' is a genus of marine animals in the phylum ''

Brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

a'' belonging to the family ''

Chlidonophoridae Chlidonophoridae is a family of brachiopods belonging to the order Terebratulida. Existence Fossils of Chlidonophoridae have been discovered as early as 191-183 MYA in the Jurassic period. her has a total of 52 species out of which 25 are extan ...

''. The species of this genus are found in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, eastern coast of the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, western coast of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, south-east coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

Existence

There have been 155 occurrences of ''Chlidonophora'' as of November, 2022. The species of this genus have been found in the

, eastern coast of the

, western coast of

, south-east coast of

and in the

Characteristics

All species of ''Chidonophora'' are blind like all other species of '' Rhynconellata.'' They are stationery and attached to another surface like all other ''

s''. They are

filter feeder Filter feeders are a sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feedin ...

s(also known as suspension feeders) and eat suspended food particles (usually

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

). They have a taphonomy of low mg Calcite like all other ''Brachiopods''.

Subtaxa

''Chlidonophora'' consists of 2 species, both of which are extant to the present day. *'' Chlidonophora chuni'' *'' Chlidonophora incerta''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3542850 Brachiopod genera