STROPHEODONTA

genus of small, extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Devonian marine rocks (those about 360 million to 408 million years old). Stropheodonta has a distinctive internal structure and a shell form with fine linear and arcuate (bowlike) markings on its concavo-convex shell. Stropheodonta is characteristic of an important group of brachiopods, the strophomenids; it is a useful Devonian index fossil.