Pygope

Pygope is an extinct genus of brachiopods belonging to the family Pygopidae. These brachiopods lived in open sea from the Jurassic Period, Kimmeridgian age (152.1–157.3 mya) up to Cretaceous Period, Barremian age (125.0–~129.4 mya). Some of the species are characterised by a smaller or larger perforation through the entire shell in older specimens, while others just have a depression somewhere on the midline. Younger specimens of the perforated species develop a heart-shape and subsequently both extensions merge, thus encircling a central passage which is in fact entirely outside the shell.