File:Zygospira brachiopods in fossiliferous limestone (Point Pleasant Limestone, Upper Ordovician; Bear Creek Quarry, east of Neville, Ohio, USA) 1.jpg

English: Zygospira fossil brachiopods in fossiliferous limestone from the Ordovician of Ohio, USA. (each brachiopod is about 4 to 5 mm across)

Brachiopods are sessile, benthic, filter-feeding, marine invertebrates. They first appear in Cambrian rocks and were abundant in Earth's oceans throughout the Paleozoic. They were also common in Mesozoic oceans, but are scarce in modern oceanic biotas. Brachiopods have two shells, called valves, that are usually calcareous (made of calcite - CaCO3 - calcium carbonate). Each shell of a brachiopod is bilaterally symmetrical, unlike each shell of a bivalve (clam).

The fossil plate shown above is mostly covered with Zygospira brachiopods, a small atrypid brachiopod that is moderately common in the Cincinnatian Series, which is the type Upper Ordovician for North America.

Classification: Animalia, Brachiopoda, Articulata (a.k.a. Rhynchonelliformea), Atrypida, Anazygidae

Stratigraphy: Point Pleasant Formation (Point Pleasant Limestone), upper Shermanian Stage to lower Edenian Stage, Upper Ordovician

Locality: Bear Creek Quarry, eastern side of Bear Creek Road, just north of Rt. 52, north of the Ohio River, east of the town of Neville, far-southern Clermont County, southwestern Ohio, USA (38° 48' 06.79" North latitude, 84° 09' 30.53" West longitude)