biology

Kilbuchophyllia

Kilbuchophyllia is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kilbuchophyllia rather than just read about it. In short: Kilbuchophyllia is an extinct genus of hexacoral belonging to the monotypic order Kilbuchophyllida and family Kilbuchophyllidae. It is known from the Late Ordovician Kirkcolm Formation of Scotland and the Bardahessiagh Formation of Northern Ireland, and the species K. discoidea and K. clarksoni are known.

Key takeaways

Kilbuchophyllia belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kilbuchophyllia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kilbuchophyllia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kilbuchophyllia is an extinct genus of hexacoral belonging to the monotypic order Kilbuchophyllida and family Kilbuchophyllidae. It is known from the Late Ordovician Kirkcolm Formation of Scotland and the Bardahessiagh Formation of Northern Ireland, and the species K. discoidea and K. clarksoni are known.

Discovery and naming Ben Peach and John Horne were the first to describe material belonging to Kilbuchophyllia. They discovered material belonging to the genus during their 1899 survey of the Ordovician rocks of Scotland and described the specimens from Kilbucho as "shelly fossils".

Kilbuchophyllia discoidea Twenty specimens (including the holotype RMS 1989.36.1) were found within the poorly-studied greywackes of Wallace's Cast, Kilbucho during the 1980s which were used as the basis of naming Kilbuchophyllia discoidea by Scrutton & Clarkson (1991), and even more material was described by Scrutton in 1993 and 1996. This extended the known range to Wallace's Cast, Glenkip Burn, Snar Water, and Duntercleuch.

In the past, the paratype of K. discoidea was listed as belonging to Palaecyclus by Peach and Horne (1899).

Kilbuchophyllia clarksoni Kilbuchophyllia clarksoni was named by Scrutton (1993) and the holotype of K. clarksoni is GSE9935. A specimen of K. clarksoni was found at Kilbucho in August 1995 and was the first of many occurrences of the species at Kilbucho. In 1992, excavations at the Bardahessiagh Formation in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland uncovered specimens of K. clarksoni which were described by Scrutton, Jeram & Armstrong (1997).

Description Kilbuchophyllia had radially organised septae with a beaded appearance and six-fold cyclic insertion, and it represents an early Paleozoic anomaly that, using calcite, successfully mineralized a skeletal cup around a soft, anemone-like body. It had weak bilateral symmetry and was a solitary animal as it did not associate with rugose corals.

Classification The organisation of its septae prompted Scrutton & Clarkson (1991) to place Kilbuchophyllia into Zoantharia by creating the order Kilbuchophyllida and the family Kilbuchophyllidae as a branch of Corallimorpharia. It was later moved into Hexacorallia by Scrutton (1997) and is no longer seen as belonging to Scleractinia. Sepkoski (2002) agreed with the placement of Kilbuchophyllia into Zoantharia. The genus has implications for showing signs of morphological convergence with Scleractinia.

Paleogeography and extinction Kilbuchophyllia is known from the Late Ordovician Kirkcolm Formation (Scotland) and the Bardahessiagh Formation (Northern Ireland). They were deposited in environments which allowed for Kilbuchophyllia to grow near volcanic islands. It is believed that a submarine landslide caused the extinction of the K. discoidea population at Kilbucho. The K. clarksoni population at Craigbardahessiagh was extinct before the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

Notes

References

Illustrations

Kilbuchophyllia: K. clarksoni holotype — K. clarksoni holotype

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kilbuchophyllia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kilbuchophyllia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kilbuchophyllia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kilbuchophyllia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kilbuchophyllia

In research: Kilbuchophyllia appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kilbuchophyllia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kilbuchophyllia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fossil taxa described in 1991, Late Ordovician animals, Late Ordovician first appearances, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kilbuchophyllia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kilbuchophyllia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kilbuchophyllia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kilbuchophyllia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kilbuchophyllia in simple terms?

Why does Kilbuchophyllia matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kilbuchophyllia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kilbuchophyllia.