[2] Kutorginides were among the earliest rhynchonelliforms, restricted to the lower-middle part of the Cambrian Period ("Atdabanian" [stage 3] to "Mayan" [late Miaolingian]).

[1] Kutorginide diversity was highest up to the "Toyonian", though they began to decline in the mid-Cambrian even as other brachiopod orders (particularly orthides and acrotretides) diversified.

A similar pattern of diversity loss is seen in obollelides, naukatides, and chileides, three other early rhynchonelliform orders contemporary with kutorginides.

Based on fossils of Nisusia, the shell’s internal (secondary) layer appears to have a microstructure of calcite fibers.

Conversely, the chilidium is rather low and undeveloped, leaving a large exposed notothyrium (dorsal indentation).

[2] The soft-tissue relevance of this opening has been a subject of debate, and recent evidence has argued for a more nuanced interpretation with variation within the class.

Kutorgina chengjiangensis, from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte of China, has a pedicle in the form of a thick annulated stalk.

This tube has long been interpreted as a coprolite, suggesting that kutorginides had a complete gut terminating at a gap in the rear of the shell.