Stratum.black
Mucrospirifer — Mucrospirifer
Mucrospirifer — Wilson44691, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 3.0

Brachiopod

Mucrospirifer

Butterfly brachiopod

Mucrospirifer mucronatus is the winged Middle Devonian spiriferid of the Silica Formation, the Hamilton Group and the Ontario Arkona shale, with long pointed cardinal extremities that give it the 'butterfly' name. It is one of the most abundant and cheapest Devonian brachiopods and a staple of school collections. Complete wings are the thing to check.

PhylumBrachiopoda
ClassRhynchonellata
OrderSpiriferida
FamilyMucrospiriferidae
GroupBrachiopod
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorGrabau 1931· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Brachiopoda › Rhynchonellata › Spiriferida › Mucrospiriferidae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)420–347 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences728· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Mucrospirifer — Mucrospirifer thedfordensis (NHMUK PI BB 58859)
Mucrospirifer thedfordensis (NHMUK PI BB 58859) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Mucrospirifer" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/mucrospirifer. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-mucrospirifer,
  title        = {Mucrospirifer},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/mucrospirifer}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.