Morphological description (show/hide)
massive, repent, anastomising, thick branches, spreading over coral substrate, individuals can cover areas up to 30 cm across, dimensions of holotype (QM G304701): 12 cm (l), 4 cm (w), 3.5 cm (thick), irregular contours. | dull yellow (rY 7/6) to brown yellow (rY 6/8) | prominent, ~2-3 cm (d), scattered over upper surface, slightly elevated, pronounced contractile rim. | hard. | conules abundant, ~1-2 mm (h), rounded rather than pointed apically, general surface uneven, low ridges in places. | dendritic, fibrous, fibres irregular, with only pith elements, always enclose small amount of sandy debris, ~220-600 um, surface of fibres resembles solidified lava flow, large areas devoid of skeleton, especially in deeper region of choanosome, strong collagen tracts localised in ectosome and choanosome, collagen tracts surround fibres and divide choanosome into islands of tissue, choanocyte chambers lie in islands, ~15-20 mm (d), all canals surrounded by dense collagen deposits. | strongly collagenous, 300-800 um (deep), alternating bands of extremely dense collagen separated by areas of lower collagen content and high concentrations of spherulous cells, large lacunae along the inner boundary of ectosome, regular array of small inhalent canals in immediate subsurface region. | nil. | nil. |
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Reference (show/hide)
Erpenbeck, D., Sutcliffe, P., Cook, S.d.C., Dietzel, A., Maldonado, M., van Soest, R.W.M., Hooper, J.N.A., Wörheide, G., 2012. Horny sponges and their affairs: On the phylogenetic relationships of keratose sponges. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 63, 809-816. |
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