A life between two flaps. Brachiopods
Museum für Naturkunde: Lecture on 17 May, 6.30 pm in the TIETZ, event hall
On Wednesday 17 May at 6.30 pm, interested parties are invited to a lecture by Frank Hrouda from the Gera Museum of Natural History on fossil brachiopods in the TIETZ event hall. Admission is free.
The lecture is not only aimed at fossil collectors, but at anyone who is interested in fascinating worlds before our time. Each guest at the lecture will also receive a brachiopod as a souvenir to take home.
After providing basic knowledge about brachiopods in the lecture, the second part will focus on vivid descriptions of some astonishing representatives of the 19 different brachiopod species known from the city of Gera.
At first glance, representatives of this now rare group of animals resemble mussels, but they are not related to molluscs and differ greatly in their structure and way of life. From the 255 million year old Zechstein lagoon of Gera alone, 19 different species are known.
Most people are completely unfamiliar with brachiopods - no wonder, because today there are only around 370 different species of these animals, which live exclusively in the sea, on the entire planet. The few people who are familiar with brachiopods usually belong to the "group" of fossil collectors or palaeontologists. This is hardly surprising, as at least 30,000 brachiopod species have existed in the course of the Earth's history since the Cambrian period 540 million years ago and are frequently found as fossils worldwide. They are often confused with mussels, as brachiopods, like mussels, have a shell that basically consists of two shells or valves. However, brachiopods do not even belong to the molluscs, but actually form their own animal phylum.
Not far from Chemnitz, "fossilised" brachiopods have been collected in Gera in eastern Thuringia since the 18th century. Even today, building excavations continue to yield attractive finds. The brachiopods from Gera date back to the Lower Zechstein (Upper Permian) around 255 million years ago. At that time, they covered the floor of the shallow Zechstein Sea, in some cases en masse.