Gogia spiralis Dawn Crinoid Fossil

This is an excellent example of the Cambrian Eocrinoid Gogia spiralis. Gogia was among the earliest groups of echinoderms, existing from the early to middle Cambrian. For this reason they are often called "dawn crinoids". They had a vase-shaped body (calyx), covered by plates that were symmetrical and have a bifurcated brachiole, a slender arm-like structure for food-gathering that closely resembled those in cystoids. Gogia and other eocrinoids were not closely related to the true crinoids, and were actually more closely related to the extinct blastoids that perished in the Permian-Triassic extinction event when some 96% of marine species perished.