Silurozodus, new genus, the oldest known member of the Trigonioida (Bivalvia, Mollusca)

The trigonioid bivalveSilurozodus gotlandicus n. gen. et n. sp. is described in terms of functional morphology, ecology, and life habit. The excellently preserved material has made it possible to reconstruct the nature of the foot and its muscles and the position of the gills.Silurozodus gotlandicus is interpreted to have been a nonsiphonate, actively burrowing, infaunal suspension-feeder that lived in a high-energy and unstable environment.Silurozodus gotlandicus is of late Wenlockian (Homerian) age and is the oldest known representative of the Trigonioida. It is probably ancestral to all younger members of this order.