Reconstruction of Retziella capricornae

Artist’s impression of brachiopod Retziella capricornae, showing how the animals may have appeared following a storm event. This figure shows some surviving animals, as well as some damaged or dead animals deposited in a small storm horizon. Shell fossils are commonly found in horizons that formed following high energy storm events. On the living animals (top right), some of the soft tissue parts of the organism, which are commonly not preserved during fossilisation, are visible. This includes spiral lophophores (used for filtering food out of the water), setae (bristle-like structures protruding out of the shells, which may have been used as defence, sensing or channelling of water), and pedicle (fleshy stalk used to attach the animals to the substrate). Fossils of this species are found throughout other parts of eastern Australia, allowing correlation and comparison with other sites deposited during the Silurian period.