{{Short description|Extinct genus of marine invertebrates}} {{Automatic Taxobox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|Middle Cambrian}} | image = Cigara dusli (Barrande 1887).png | taxon = Cigara | authority = Barrande 1887 | type_species = ''†C. dusli'' | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = *''C. dusli'' {{small|Barrande 1887}} }}
'''''Cigara'''''<ref name=IRMNG>{{cite web|url=https://www.irmng.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1209779 |title=IRMNG - Cigara Barrande, 1887 † |website=Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genre}}</ref> (sometimes misspelled '''''Cigaria''''')<ref>{{harvnb|Sprinkle|1973|pp=136–138}}</ref> is an extinct echinoderm genus of uncertain affinities, generally placed ''incertae sedis'' within the Eocrinoidea.<ref name=Ubaghs1967>{{harvnb|Ubaghs|1967|pp=S492–S493}}</ref><ref name=Sepkoski2002>{{harvnb|Sepkoski|2002|p=272}}</ref> It contains a single species, '''''C. dusli''''', that is known only from two incomplete specimens on a single slab collected from the Middle Cambrian Jince Formation of the Czech Republic.<ref name=Sprinkle1973>{{harvnb|Sprinkle|1973|p=136}}</ref>
==Description== The body of ''Cigara'' has three parts, with the middle part creating a roughly 40° bend between the conical outer parts. The middle part features an unusual lattice structure of thin elongate plates crossing in X-shaped patterns. Neither of the specimens preserve the end of either cone, and no feeding appendages are apparent.<ref name=Sprinkle1973 />
Some researchers have interpreted ''Cigara'' as a shallow sediment sticker, meaning that part of its body would have sat within a stabilized substrate. However, others find it better to consider the mode of attachment uncertain due to the poor preservation of all reported specimens.<ref name=Zamora2017>{{harvnb|Zamora|Deline|Javier Álvaro|Rahman|2017|p=482}}</ref>
==Classification== The assignment of ''Cigara'' to the Eocrinoidea has been based on the presence of respiratory structures known as epispires in middle section of the body.<ref name=Sprinkle1973 /> Respiratory structures have traditionally been used to assign blastozoan echinoderms to traditional classes. However, this is no longer seen as a way to define monophyletic clades due to the diversity of structures, as well as convergent evolution of similar structures in different groups.<ref name=Sheffield2022>{{harvnb|Sheffield|Limbeck|Bauer|Hill|Nohejlová|2022|p=2}}</ref>
===Rejected affinities=== While ''Cigara'' has previously been proposed as synonymous with ''Dendrocystites'' (a solute), or with ''Acanthocystites'' (a gogiid eocrinoid), the 1967 Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology deemed these associations "unacceptable" and placed it in the section for unclassified eocrinoids.<ref name=Ubaghs1967 />
===Possible connection to Stylophora=== In his 1973 classification that established Blastozoa (including Eocrinoidea) as a subphylum, James Sprinkle noted that epispires appear in other classes of early echinoderms, including Stylophora. He further noted that the only structures similar to the X-shaped lattice appear in stylophorans, and that ''Cigara'' could be a "very early and perhaps abberrant" stylophoran.<ref name=Sprinkle1973 />
Based on this, Sprinkle predicted that when complete specimens are found, they will not have the biserial brachioles characteristic of blastozoans. However, while he advocated removing ''Cigara'' from Eocrinoidea, Sprinkle did not assign it to Stylophora. He considered that ''Cigara'' might warrant being placed in its own class, but that there was not enough clear information to formally erect such a class.<ref>{{harvnb|Sprinkle|1973|p=138}}</ref>
More recent research has suggested that the stylophoran aulacophore is most parsimoniously interpreted as a modified brachiole, as the water vascular system is not accompanied by the a somatocoelar derivative as it is in crinoid arms. Additionally, while most brachioles have biserial ossicles, in several species they are monoserial as they are in stylophorans.<ref name=Mooi2024>{{harvnb|Mooi|Lefebvre|Guensburg|Nohejlová|Dupichaud|2024|p=477}}</ref> Therefore ''Cigara'' having stylophoran affinites would not remove it from the blastozoa.
Later taxonomies have continued to include ''Cigara'' in Eocrinoidea, albeit tentatively.<ref name=Sepkoski2002 />
==References== {{reflist}}
===Works cited=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal|last1=Mooi |first1=Rich |last2=Lefebvre |first2=Bertrand |last3=Guensburg |first3=Thomas E. |last4=Nohejlová |first4=Martina |last5=Dupichaud |first5=Christophe |date=December 2024 |title=Approaches to understanding echinoderm origins. Part 2: Questioning conceptual models |journal=Cahiers de Biologie Marine |volume=65 |pages=463–490 |doi=10.21411/CBM.A.604F2876}} * {{cite journal|last=Sepkoski |first=J. John |date=16 September 2002 |title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera |journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology |number=363}} * {{cite book |last1=Sheffield |first1=Sarah L. |last2=Limbeck |first2=Maggie R. |last3=Bauer |first3=Jennifer E. |last4=Hill |first4=Stephen A. |last5=Nohejlová |first5=Martina |editor-last1=Sumrall |editor-first1=Colin D. |year=2022 |title=A Review of Blastozoan Echinoderm Respiratory Structures |series=Elements of Paleontology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781108881821 |isbn=9781108794725}} * {{cite journal|last1=Sprinkle |first1=James |year=1973 |title=Morphology and evolution of blastozoan echinoderms |journal=Special Publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University |url=https://archive.org/details/morphologyevolut00spri/mode/2up |access-date=29 October 2024}} * {{cite book|last1=Ubaghs |first1=Georges |date=1967 |chapter=Eocrionidea |editor-last1=Moore |editor-first1=Raymond C. |title=Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part S: Echinodermata 1 |volume=1 |pages=S455–S495 |publisher=University of Kansas Press |url=https://journals.ku.edu/InvertebratePaleo/issue/view/519 |access-date=29 October 2024}} * {{cite journal|last1=Zamora |first1=Samuel |last2=Deline |first2=Bradley |last3=Javier Álvaro |first3=J. |last4=Rahman |first4=Imran A. |year=2017 |title=The Cambrian Substrate Revolution and the early evolution of attachment in suspension-feeding echinoderms |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=171 |pages=478–491 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.06.018 |bibcode=2017ESRv..171..478Z }} {{refend}}
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Category:Enigmatic prehistoric animal genera Category:Prehistoric echinoderm genera Category:Echinoderm genera Category:Cambrian echinoderms Category:Fossil taxa described in 1887