Paraspirifer

Paraspirifer is a genus of large brachiopods (up to about ) that lived during the late Lower and Middle Devonian in what now are Germany, Spain, Morocco and the United States (New York State and Ohio).
Taxonomy.
"Paraspirifer" developed from "Brachyspirifer" during the early upper Emsian (cancellata-elegans/Dalehe Event).
Distribution.
"Paraspirifer" originated in the lower upper Emsian and became extinct in Europe and Northern Africa at the end of the lower Eifelian. It survived into the Givetian in North America though.
Ecology.
From the type of deposits that contain "Paraspirifer bownockeri" it can be deduced that this species inhabited soft clay mudflats. Shells of this species hosted a wide range of epibionts, such as bryozoans, corals, echinoderms, annelid worms and other brachiopods. These epibionts are more numerous on the brachial valve than on the pedunculate valve, because this big brachiopod lay on its pedunculate valve after the degeneration of the stalk.