Discinoidea is a superfamily of Discinid

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

s. For discussion of Discinid taxonomy, see

Discinidae Discinidae is a family in the brachiopod superfamily Discinoidea. Unlike most brachiopods, which have uniformly calcitic or phosphatic shells, modern-day discinids incorporate tablets of silica into their valves. These are covered with vesicles i ...

. The history of the superfamily Discinoidea spans almost the entire

Phanerozoic The Phanerozoic is the current and the latest of the four eon (geology), geologic eons in the Earth's geologic time scale, covering the time period from 538.8 million years ago to the present. It is the eon during which abundant animal and ...

Eon, and has been described as ″one of the few ′living fossils′ that has survived all major catastrophic events in the Phanerozoic history of the Earth.″

References

Animal superfamilies Discinida {{brachiopod-stub