{{Short description|Subphylum of brachiopod}} {{More citations needed|date=November 2016}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Linguliformea | fossil_range = {{fossil range|Lower Cambrian|Recent}} | image = LingulaanatinaAA.JPG | image_caption = ''Lingula anatina'' from Stradbroke Island, Australia | authority = Williams et al. 1996 | subdivision = {{Linked taxon list <!-- following the Treatise, 2000 --> | Lingulata | Gorjansky and Popov 1985 | †Paterinata |Rowell 1965 }} }}
'''Linguliformea''' is a subphylum of inarticulate brachiopods.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Torres-Martínez, M.A.|author2=Sour-Tovar, F.|year=2016|title=Braquiópodos discínidos (Lingulida, Discinoidea) de la Formación Ixtaltepec, Carbonífero del área de Santiago Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca|url=http://boletinsgm.igeolcu.unam.mx/bsgm/vols/epoca04/6802/(9)Torres.pdf|journal=Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana|volume=68|issue=2 |pages=313–321|doi=10.18268/BSGM2016v68n2a9 }}</ref> These were the earliest of brachiopods, ranging from the Cambrian into the Holocene. They rapidly diversified during the Cambrian into the Ordovician, but most families became extinct by the end of the Devonian.
The articulation in these brachiopods is lacking. These brachiopods have adductor and oblique muscles, but no diductor muscles. The anus is located at the side of the body. The pedicle is a hollow extension of the ventral body wall. Posterior body wall separates dorsal and ventral mantles.
The shells are usually made up of apatite (calcium phosphate), however rare cases have calcite or aragonite shells.
==See also== *{{C|Paleozoic brachiopods}}
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==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Brachiopod orders}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q6486650}}
Category:Brachiopod taxonomy Category:Paleozoic brachiopods Category:Devonian extinctions Category:Animal subphyla
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