Brachiopods are in the form of the two hinged shell type.
A group was abundant in the Palaeozoic and are important for stratigraphic purposes. They are also important indicators of climate and sea depth in ancient times. As a sea inundated an area of land the successive layers of sediment contain fossils of brachipods that lived in water of progressively increasing depth. They are benthic marine animals filtering food particles from the water siphoned in between the two protective valves. This particular brachiopod is unusual by having the spines along the pedicle valve interarea.