Lingula anatina (1) mm 67 Seashell Tropical Brachiopod Green Lamp Shell

Lingula anatina mm 67 Seashell Tropical Brachiopod Green Lamp Shell, both valves, mm 41 stalk-like pedicle excluded, only a piece, as in photo.
The specimen has a small fracture on one of the valves.
Taken at Buena Vista, from intercotidal zone near mangrow.
Family: Lingulidae.
Common name: Green Lingula or Hoi Pak Ped.
Syn. Lingula bancrofti, Lingula exusta, Lingula hians, Lingula murphiana.

It should be noted for all bivalves that the two valves may have been glued or remained closed due to the dried ligament and therefore the item appears as a single piece. Therefore, we are not responsible for any damage caused to the shell to try to badly separate the pieces.

The phylum of brachiopods consists of marine invertebrates, benthic, sessil, sospensivorous and with bilateral symmetry. The plane of symmetry is perpendicular to the commissure of the valves, which are divided into a peduncular valve (or ventral) and a brachial (or dorsal), generally smaller. They are inequivalves and equilateral.
They look, similar to the phylum of bivalve molluscs, is simply due to convergent evolution, having no direct relationship with them.
Nowadays these animals are scarce because they live in "refuge areas", ie areas with low population and competition. They were however very common in the Paleozoic, then, following the mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic, have migrated into deeper waters.