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Demospongiae > Haplosclerida > Petrosiidae > Petrosia (Strongylophora) sp.-“crumbly round volcano”

Observed Characteristics:

Color:

  • green
  • brown

Morphology:

  • vase

Consistency:

  • crumbly

Locations:

  • Bahamas

Species Description and Notes

Notes: A dark green-brown, crumbly, rounded volcano. Identification is tentative. It has strongyle spicules in variuos sizes, about 120 to 200 micrometers, which places it into Petrosia (Strongylophora). Ectosomal skeleton is a tangential irregular reticulation of single spicules. Internal skeleton as a ladder-like irregular unispicular reticulation. Spicules appear to be joined by spongin at the nodes; meshes are irregular because they are made up of spicules of different sizes. We compared it to Petrosia (Strongylophora) davilai (Alcolado & Gotera, 1986), also pictured here, but the structure of the skeleton is different (reticulation of ascending and interconnecting multispicular tracts).

Tissue and Spicule Images

Images

(Strongylophora) sp.-“crumbly round volcano”

  • Location: San Salvador, Bahamas
  • Photographer: Sven Zea