| Spherical |
| Orange-yellow to light red |
| White, with a greyish core |
| Body is slightly contractile; overal body consistency is incompressible; |
| Verrucose surface is frequently loaded lightly with sediment; lacks tubercles, filaments and stalked buds |
| Auxiliary megascleres, The dense radiate bundles of main megascleres (oxeas and strongyloxeas) display diameters between 400-600 μm; The bundles terminate in compact cortical fans which are formed by the main and auxiliary megascleres and make up broad cortical tubercles which contribute to the external verrucose appearance. |
| Megasters (spherasters/oxyspherasters) are evenly and densely scattered throughout the whole cortex, but almost lacking in the peripheral 200-500 μm of the cortex and in some basal parts of the cortex near the cortical-choanosomal boundary; Micrasters form a discrete layer allocated in the exopinacoderm surface and are most dense in the peripheral cortex |
| The main megascleres are constituted by oxeas, anisostrongyles and strongyloxeas, 1580-2540 μm (2049 � 259 μm; n=40) in length, 18-53 μm (34 � 7 μm; n=40) in diameter. Auxiliary megascleres are constituted by oxeas, anisostrongyles and strongyloxeas, 490-1490 μm (1055 � 215 μm; n=128) in length, 7-30 μm (19 � 5 μm; n=128) in diameter. |
| The megasters are represented by spherasters to oxyspherasters of varying size and morphology; Cortical megasters display 8-20 rays and are 41-115 μm (84 � 12 μm; n=40) in diameter with R/Cs of 0.34-0.69 (0.46 � 0.07; n=227); Choanosomal megasters display 12-18 rays and are 24-81 μm in diameter, with R/Cs of 0.25-0.81 (0.41 � 0.1; n=85); The form of the rays varies in both regions from slender to stout; Micrasters fall into four categories: acanthoxyspherasters, 10-19 μm in diameter with 10-12 rays (the main category); acanthostrongylasters 8-18 μm in diameter, with 8-12 rays; a few acanthotylasters with only slight terminal knobs, 6-8 μm in diameter, with 10-14 slightly spinulated rays; and small oxyspherasters, 4-10 μm in diameter, with 10-15 slender rays; |
