Only one living specimen has ever been reported and nothing is known
of its anatomy. Needed are dead and especielly living (preserved)
specimens.

Apparently it lives in mud or sand, much like Brechites and
Penicillus, which it so closely (but superficially) resembles.

It is NOT Penicillidae, but appears similar to, for instance, the
penicillid Nipponoclava gigantea, with a watering-pot at the anterior
end, with a constriction in the calcareous crypt behind the pot.
However Stirpulina has only the left valve attached to the crypt (in
penicillids BOTH valves are fused into the crypt) and the wateringpot
is U-shaped when viewed from the anterior end, with a notch in the
right side (that is, to the viewer's left). The tubules radiate from
this U. This U marks the anterior end of the suture produced in
building up the crypt to cover the free right valve within. In
penicillids there is either a flat disc from which tubules radiate,
or a rounded termination.

Both families are now believed to have evolved independently from
Lyonsiidae, Clavagellidae in the Cretaceous and Penicillidae in the
Oligocene.

Amost inevitably penicillids are misidentified when offered for sale
or in literature, and are often placed in the wrong genus. Not to
mention family.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not those of Otago University
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean"  - Talking Heads

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