Sanxiaella Craniopsidae is an extinct family of craniiform brachiopods which lived from the mid-Cambrian to the Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian).

[1] If one includes the ambiguous Cambrian genus Discinopsis, craniopsids were the first craniiforms to appear, and may be ancestral to craniids and trimerellides.

More recently, Heliomedusa has been considered a stem-group brachiopod related to Mickwitzia.

The calcitic shell is rounded in profile and biconvex, with both valves equally convex.

They show some similarities with kirengellids, a group of problematic Cambrian fossils representing the shells of marine organisms.