TETRACTINELLA

genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Triassic marine rocks (the Triassic period lasted from 245 million to 208 million years ago). Its distinctive shell has prominent ribs and intervening troughs radiating from its apex and margins extending in a weblike fashion between the ribs; the shell is compressed in profile. One species of Tetractinella is an excellent example of a phenomenon known as homeomorphy, in which an organism simulates an unrelated organism in form and function. Tetractinella trigonella, a Middle Triassic species from Italy, is remarkably similar to the unrelated Cheirothyris fleuriausa, from the Late Jurassic (about 150 million years ago) marine rocks of Germany. The two forms are separated by a great geographic distance and by a large span of time.