Stupenda, Kelly & Cárdenas, 2016

Kelly, Michelle & Cárdenas, Paco, 2016, An unprecedented new genus and family of Tetractinellida (Porifera, Demospongiae) from New Zealand’s Colville Ridge, with a new type of mitochondrial group I intron, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 177 (2), pp. 335-352 : 342

GENUS STUPENDA GEN. NOV.

Type species

Stupenda singularis gen. et sp. nov.

Diagnosis

Spherical Tetractinellida with an uneven, thick armoured cortex, oscules not visible. Texture in life tough, incompressible, colour in life cream with a thick, semitranslucent cortex. Choanosomal architecture strongly radiating, oxeas spiralling from a central point, cortex distinct with brushes of packed triaenes, the cladome of which projects well beyond the surface, forming an armour. Megascleres are huge attenuated oxeas and orthotriaenes with a long conical rhabdome, the upper third of which is acanthose, and a cladome with clubbed spherical to oval-shaped clads. Orthotriaenes occasionally with normal smooth clads