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 up to Cretaceous Period, Barremian age. 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.

Distribution

P. catulloi occurs in Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Switzerland.P. diphya has been found in the Lower Cretaceous of Poland, Slovakia.P. janitor is present in the Upper Jurassic of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Lower Cretaceous of Greenland and Poland.