Studies on Lingula anatina (Brachiopoda: Inarticulata) in Subarnarekha Estuary, Odisha with Special Reference to Habitat and Population

Lingula is the oldest living genus belongs to the phylum Brachiopoda commonly known as 'Lamp shell'. It is flourished from Cambrian times to the present (MacGINITIE and MacGINITIE, 1968) and come down to the ages with little changes. Among the 150 extant species family Lingulidae, it is considered to be the most primitive and has only 12 species (living) belong to 2 genera (Emig, 1997). Genus Lingula is distributed in Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa while the other genus Glottidia confined only in the continents of America.