Two new Lower Paleozoic hexactinellid sponges from Utah and Oklahoma
Rigby, J.K.; Gutschick, R.C. (1976). Two new Lower Paleozoic hexactinellid sponges from Utah and Oklahoma. J. Paleontol. 50(1): 79-85
In: Journal of Paleontology. The Paleontological Society: Tulsa, Okla.. ISSN 0022-3360; e-ISSN 1937-2337, more
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Keywords |
Biological phenomena > Evolution Biology > Organism morphology Palaeo studies > Palaeontology Taxa > Species > New taxa > New species Dierespongia palla; Hintzespongia bilamina Marine/Coastal |
Authors | | Top |
- Rigby, J.K.
- Gutschick, R.C.
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Abstract |
Hintzespongia bilamina gen.et sp.nov., from the Middle Cambrian of Utah, and Dierespongia palla, gen.et sp.nov., from the Ordovician Bromide Formation of Oklahoma show double layered skeletons and are placed in the new Family Dierespongiidae. Both have an outer, thin, regularly arranged, roughly to well defined quadruled layer of stauracts in the Cambrian form and of stauracts and hexacts in the Ordovician one, and both have an inner layer or sponge body composed of irregularly spaced and arranged hexacts and stauracts. Parietal gaps are present in the inner irregular layer of the Cambrian sponge but are not evident in the Ordovician one. Their skeletal arrangements have the regularity characteristic of Protosongiidae in the outer layer and irregularity somewhat like that of the Teganiidae or of the Brachiosongiodea in the inner part. They appear to be structurally transitional between these large groups of Paleozoic sponges, and indicate that the regular patterned skeleton of at least early protosponges, and probably later Paleozoic dictyosponges as well, was of dermal origin and that the irregular skeleton of the brachiosponges and teganiid sponges was of parenchymal origin. |
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