Humans have been interested in echinoid fossils (the fossilised remains of sea urchins) for millennia, considering them lucky and imbuing them with magical powers linked to their deities

A folk tradition in Denmark and southern England imagined sea urchin fossils to be thunderbolts, able to ward off harm by lightning or by witchcraft, as an apotropaic symbol. Another version supposed they were petrified eggs of snakes, able to protect against heart and liver disease, poisons, an