Suberitidae Schmidt, 1870

Łukowiak, Magdalena, 2015, Late Eocene siliceous sponge fauna of southern Australia: reconstruction based on loose spicules record, Zootaxa 3917 (1), pp. 1-65 : 26

Family Suberitidae Schmidt, 1870

Very characteristic tylostyles with swollen, bulb-shaped, peculiarly lobate, semi-globular or flattened tyles and thick, narrowing shafts ( Figs. 10 G, H) that closely resemble those occurring in sponges of the hadromerid family Suberitidae were also found in the studied samples. This kind of tylostyle occurs, for example, in suberitid Terpios fugax Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 (compare with van Soest 2002a, fig. 13B) that today is reported from shallow waters from all over the world (van Soest et al. 2013). However, the spicules studied here are much bigger and while T. fugax has spicules exceeding 460 Μm, those described here are about twice as big. There are two species of Terpios Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 described from the Australian waters by Hentschel (1909): T. australiensis Hentschel, 1909 and T. symbioticus Hentschel, 1909 [accepted now as Protosuberites epiphytum ( Lamarck, 1815) ], but both have tylostyles without peculiarly lobate tyles. Most probably, the spicules investigated here belong to an extinct species of Terpios . The sponges of this family were not reported so far as fossils and this is the first fossil occurrence of this suberitid.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Spicules of sponges of the order Hadromerida; A – C—Mucronate tylostyles of Cliona cf. mucronata, family Clionaidae; D – F—Tylostyles of the order Hadromerida; G, H—Tylostyles of Terpios sp., family Suberitidae; I, J, P, R—Anthasters of Diplastrella cf. megastellata, family Spirastrellidae; K – M—Spherostyles of Sphaerotylus sp. 1, family Polymastiidae; L – O—Spherostyles of Sphaerotylus sp. 2, family Polymastiidae; Q—Microsclere spiraster of family Spirastrellidae or Clionaidae; S – Y—Verticillate strongyles of Dotona pulchella Carter, 1880, family Clionaidae.