STROPHOMENA

genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Middle and Upper Ordovician marine rocks (those ranging in age from 438 million to 478 million years old). The shell consists of two parts, or valves, dissimilar in shapeone strongly convex, the other concave. A distinctive laminated pattern occurs at the margins of the shell, along with fine, arcuate (bowlike) growth lines. Strophomena is representative of an important group of fossil brachiopods, the strophomenids.