FRANCE

Still veiled in mystery, the evolutionary benefit of the uncoiled form is still not fully understood. It may have been that this species inhabited the benthic zone, and thus did not require a form suited to swimming. The spiny defences would therefore have been necessary to protect a slow moving animal on the sea floor.
The inner coils of this specimen have been worked away from the matrix to free the specimen to highlight its unusual shape. Countless hours of careful work were required to prepare this specimen to reveal one of the most extraordinary forms that has been sculpted by nature.