With a shell length of 33 cm, Vicetia bizzottoi is the biggest fossil cowrie known to science (the largest living cowrie is ‘barely’ 13 cm long!). This gastropod, which lived in the Late Eocene (between 38 and 34 million years ago), has large striking protrusions on its shell. The study of cowries has shown that gigantism has appeared several times in their evolutionary history, particularly in deeper or colder waters, where oxygen dissolves in greater quantities. This phenomenon, already observed in many living marine animals, had rarely been found in palaeontological samples. The study of these molluscs also open up important research scenarios on the consequences of global warming: as the temperature decreases, individuals increase in size, maturing later and living longer; conversely, as the temperature increases, they face a decrease in size. One of the effects of climate change may therefore be a higher risk of extinction for the giants of the animal kingdom.
