''Gwynia capsula'' is a very small to minute brachiopod (maximally long), currently known from the east Atlantic (France, Belgium, British Isles),Voskuil, R. P. A. (2004). De Recente en Tertiaire Brachiopoden van het Nederlandse strand: een inventarisatie van de literatuur en commentaar op het vermeende voorkomen van ''Gwynia capsula'' (Jeffreys, 1859) in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. ''Het Zeepaard'' 64(2):45-58 but which occurred during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

in what is now Norway. It has a translucent, whitish, purse-shaped shell with relatively large, wide-spaced pits (or punctae). It lives attached to stones or shells (fragments) in between large grains of sand. Like in all brachiopods, it filters food particles, chiefly

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...

s and

dinoflagellate The Dinoflagellates (), also called Dinophytes, are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists. Dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they are also commo ...

s. ''Gwynia capsula'' harbors a small number of larvae inside a brood pouch, but it has separate sexes, unlike also very small and pouch brooding brachiopods '' Argyrotheca'' and ''Joania'', which are hermaphrodites.

References

Terebratulida Brachiopods Extant Pleistocene first appearances {{brachiopod-stub