Acrotheloidea

{{short description|Superfamily of brachiopods (fossil)}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{Fossil range | Cambrian Stage 2|Early Ordovician|refs={{cite web|url=http://palaeos.com/metazoa/brachiopoda/discinida.html|title=Palaeos Metazoa: Brachiopoda: Linguliformea: Discinida|first=M.Alan|last=Kazlev|website=palaeos.com}}}}

| taxon = Acrotheloidea

| subdivision = {{taxon list

| Acrothelidae|

|Botsfordiidae|Schindewolf, 1955

|refs={{TreatiseH}}

}}

}}

Acrotheloidea is an extinct superfamily of discinid brachiopods, that lived from the Early Cambrian to Early Ordovician periods, c. 538 – 471 Ma. They are sometimes alternatively ascribed to the lingulids.

There is evidence for an evolutionary transition through the genera Eoobolus, Pustulobolus, and Bostfordia to the Acrotretids.{{cite journal |last1=Boyce |first1=W. D. |last2=Balthasar |first2=U. |last3=Knight |first3=I. |last4=Skovsted |first4=C. B. |title=Depth related brachiopod faunas from the lower Cambrian Forteau Formation of southern Labrador and western Newfoundland, Canada |url=https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2017/2048-brachiopods-of-the-forteau-formation |journal=Palaeontologia Electronica |pages=1–52 |language=English |doi=10.26879/775 |date=6 November 2017|hdl=10026.1/11606 |hdl-access=free }} Acrotheloids have an apical foramen.{{cite journal|doi=10.1134/S0031030116050130|title=Revision of the superfamily Acrotheloidea (Brachiopoda, class Linguliformea, order Lingulida) from the Lower and Middle Cambrian of the Siberian Platform|journal=Paleontological Journal|volume=50|issue=5|pages=450–462|year=2016|last1=Ushatinskaya|first1=G. T|last2=Korovnikov|first2=I. V|bibcode=2016PalJ...50..450U }}