Helicoplacus gilberti
Here's another interesting and rather odd early echinoderm. Helicoplacoids appear only in
the early Cambrian shales. It appears to have had a variable shape.
Most fossils found have it twisted into a helical shape (hence the name), but there is evidence
it could extend and straighten out, at least to a certain extent. It may have been a
free-floating organism, however many believe one end was burrowed into the sand or attached to a
rock.
About the specimen
It is a Helicoplacus gilberti from the Poleta formation, Cambrian, California.
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