ABSTRACT
Brachiopods living in a submarine cave off the Sorrento Peninsula included the inarticulate Neocrania anomala, and articulates Megathiris detruncata, Argyrotheca cordata, and A. cuneata. Population and individual analyses carried out on Neocrania anomala were followed during growth from 1991 to1995 by means of photographic surveys of areas on the cave wall. In this protected environment, the population of N. anomala remained virtually unchanged through five years of observation. Their growth, evaluated on basis of the shell areas occupied, was almost static, or very low. Analysis of their growth rate shows that these brachiopods could take more than 40 years to reach the maximum dimensions observed.
