Lingula

Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

Lingula (Lamp Shell) is a brachiopod, a bivalved creature not closely related to the bivalved molluscs. It lives in brackish water at the mouths of tidal creeks where it burrows into soft mud, anchored by a long stalk (pedicle). When the tide is in, it filters water for suspended organic matter and plankton. Fossil evidence indicates that Lingula has remained virtually unchanged since the Ordovician Period, 500 million years ago, making this possibly the oldest living multicellular animal genus on earth.