Rafinesquina Temporal range:
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Rafinesquina ponderosa from the Excello South Outcrop near the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana tristate area | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Brachiopoda |
Class: | †Strophomenata |
Order: | †Strophomenida |
Family: | †Rafinesquinidae |
Subfamily: | †Rafinesquininae |
Genus: | †Rafinesquina Clarke and Hall, 1892 |
Type species | |
Leptaena alternata Conrad, 1838
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Species | |
See Species |
Rafinesquina is an extinct genus of large brachiopod that existed from the Darriwilian to the Ludlow epoch.[1]
The genus was named in honor of polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz.[2]
Rafinesquina's members were epifaunal, meaning they lived on top of the seafloor, not buried within it, and were suspension feeders.[3] Rafinesquina normally have a concavo-convex profile, with radiating striae of alternating size which are crossed with finer concentric striae.[3] Their width is usually greater than their length, like most Strophomenids. Members of this genus had shells that grew in increments, with each increment forming a layer of the shell (much like trees do with their rings). In 1982, Gary D. Rosenberg analyzed specimens of Rafinesquina alternata previously inferred to have lived in a shallow subtidal environment and proposed it could be possible to estimate the total number of days in a lunar month (the period between full moons) during the Late Ordovician using layer counting.[4]
Rafinesquina specimens had a cosmopolitan distribution, and their fossils can be found in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.[1][5][6][7]
Species in the genus Rafinesquina include:[6][7][8]