Gogia Walcott, 1917

Genus Gogia Walcott, 1917

Type species: Gogia prolifica Walcott, 1917 , lower Middle Cambrian , British Columbia ( Canada) .

Discussion.— Gogia is the most abundant and diverse Cambrian eocrinoid ( Sprinkle 1973). Thirteen species have been described in the lower and middle Cambrian of Laurentia; only one of these, Gogia ojenai Durham, 1973 , is from the lower Cambrian ( Robison 1965; Sprinkle 1973; Sprinkle and Collins 2006). There are, however, several new species from the lower Cambrian of Laurentia that still require formal description (Bryan C. Wilbur, personal communication 2005). Until now, the first convincing appearance of Gogia in Western Perigondwana was in the upper middle Cambrian of Montagne Noire ( France), where Gogia gondi Ubaghs, 1987 is reported. The Spanish material described here suggests an older first occurrence of the genus Gogia in Gondwana, in the lower middle Cambrian.

One point of discussion within the genus Gogia is the subgenus Alanisicystis Ubaghs and Vizcaïno, 1991 , from the lower Cambrian of Southern Spain ( Fig. 1 View Fig ). This subgenus is characterised by “single or partioned epispires provided with external dome−like stereomic cover”. There are no other Gogia species that show this peculiar type of epispire (complex and covered) ( Sprinkle 1976; Ubaghs 1987). For this reason, we believe that Alanisicystis Ubaghs and Vizcaïno, 1991 should be a separate genus rather than a subgenus of Gogia (note, type material of Alanisicystis andalusiae Ubaghs and Vizcaïno, 1991 previously deposited in Carcassone, France [Vizcaïno collection numbers: VCE 11, 1–3, 23, 24, 25, 26] is now deposited in the MGM. New collection numbers are

MGM 2003K 1–3, MGM 2004K, MGM 2005K, MGM 2006K, MGM 2007K).