Marine Biodiversity » Marine Sponges » Calcarea » Calcarea Classification » Subclass Calcinea

Definition: Choanosomal skeleton composed of a rigid calcareous aspicular network; cortex composed chiefly of overlapping calcareous scales, with tuning-fork spicules below.

Scope: Single genus.

Reviews: Dendy & Row (1913), Hartman (1958), Vacelet (1970), Brien et al. (1973), Hartman (1980), Vacelet (1981), Borojevic et al. (1990).

Genera:
Murrayona Kirkpatrick, 1910 (type species: Murrayona phanolepis Kirkpatrick, 1910) - with a definite pore-zone whose ectosomal (cortical) skeleton consists of small triradiates; diapasons (tuning-fork shaped spicules) are present beneath the ectosomal scales (Burton, 1963; Borojevic et al., 1990); subspherical to pyriform; surface even, imbricated; oscules small, lateral, pores in equatorial groove; texture hard; ectosomal skeleton a layer of subcircular scales, with an ectosomal layer of irregular triradiates and irregular tuning-fork spicules, regular triradiates of the poral groove, and a main skeleton composed of a stout reticulation of calcareous fibres (Burton, 1963).