ABSTRACT
Studies of the mineralogy of brachiopod shells are at present based on too few observations with respect to the quantity of modern and fossil brachiopods. In types of mineralization, brachiopod shells are divided into francolite and calcite compositions that correspond to the Lingulata and Calciata classes. This chapter provides a quantitative record of paleotemperature estimates based on oxygen isotope values from brachiopods in a New Zealand shelf environment that will document the magnitude of the decline in temperature at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Stratocladistics provides a method for evaluating alternative phylogenetic hypotheses with respect to their concordance with both character data and patterns of stratigraphic occurrence. Pentamerides comprise a small, but significant group of early and middle Paleozoic brachiopods. The Late Eocene in Australia and New Zealand records the almost coeval first appearance of several members of the Terebratellidae, a predominantly southern hemisphere family of brachiopods. Most of these forms belong to the subfamily Terebratellinae and all possess teloform loops.
