Order AGELASIDA Hartman, 1980

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Regional Maps

Diagnosis

Encrusting, semiglobular, lobate, repent-ramose, branching-erect, tubular, globular, of flabellate sponges. Surface optically smooth. Hypercalcified (basal limestone) skeleton present in one of the two families. Skeleton of siliceous spicules with binding spongin or a system of anastomosing spongin fibres, cored and echinated by spicules. In hypercalcified sponges the spicules may echinate the limestone chamber walls, blunt ends embedded in it and progressively becoming entrapped in the limestone walls. In sponges with spongin fibre system, the fibres are echinated by spicules, blunt ends embedded in the fibre, with main fibres also having a core of spicules. Megascleres verticillate-spined styles, occasionally oxeas, no microscleres. Representatives of both families of the order produce similar pyrrole-2-carboxylic compounds, characteristically with a bromine addition.

ID Keys

KEY TO FAMILIES

(1) Calcareous basal skeleton with soft parts only a thin veneer ............... Astroscleridae
Compressible sponge without calcareous skeleton ................................. Agelasidae

Diagnosis References

van Soest, R.W.M. & Hooper, J.N.A. 2002. Order Agelasida Hartman, 1980. pp. 817-818 in Hooper, J.N.A. & van Soest, R.W.M. (eds). Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges. New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers Vol. 1. [817]

General References

Bergquist, P.R. 1978. Sponges. London : Hutchinson 268 pp. 12 pls 81 figs 15 tables.

Chombard, C., Boury Esnault, N., Tillier, A. & Vacelet, J. 1997. Polyphyly of 'Sclerosponges' (Porifera, Demospongiae) supported by 28S ribosomal sequences. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole) 193(3): 359-367

Hartman, W.D. 1980. Systematics of Porifera. pp. 24–51 in Hartman, W.D., Wendt, J.W. & Wiedenmayer, F. Living and fossil sponges (Notes for a short course). Sedimenta 8, Comp. Sed. Lab. Univ. Miami.

Hartman, W.D. & Goreau, T.F. 1970. Jamaican coralline sponges: their morphology, ecology and fossil relatives. In The biology of the Porifera. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London 25: 205-243

Hartman, W.D. & Goreau, T.F. 1972. Ceratoporella (Porifera: Sclerospongiae) and the chaetetid 'corals'. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 44: 133–148

Reitner, J. 1992. "Coralline Spongien" Der Versuch einer phylogenetisch-taxonomischen Analyse. Berlin, Germany : Selbstverlag Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Freie Universitaat Berlin 352 pp.

Vacelet, J. 1985. 1. Coralline sponges and the evolution of Porifera. pp. 1-13 in Conway-Morris, S., George, J.D., Gibson, R. & Platt, H.M. (eds). The Origin and Relationships of Lower Invertebrates. Systematics Association Special Vol. 28. Oxford : Clarendon Press.

van Soest, R.W.M. 1984. Deficient Merlia normani Kirkpatrick, 1908, from the Curaçao reefs, with a discussion on the phylogenetic interpretation of sclerosponges. Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde 54: 211-219

van Soest, R.W.M. 2002. Family Agelasiidae Verrill, 1907. pp. 819-823 in Hooper, J.N.A. & van Soest, R.W.M. (eds). Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges. New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers Vol. 1.

Wiedenmayer, F. 1985. Perspectives in taxonomy of Australian marine sponges. pp. 72–73 in, Abstracts, Third International Conference on the Biology of Sponges, Woods Hole, USA, November 17–23, 1985. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.

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