Theonella atlantica Van Soest & Stentoft, 1988

Van, Rob W. M., 2017, Sponges of the Guyana Shelf, Zootaxa 1, pp. 1-225 : 104

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.272951

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6D68A019-6F63-4AA4-A8B3-92D351F1F69B

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5698654

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03A80010-7730-FFCB-FF14-A0E192BBF855

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Theonella atlantica Van Soest & Stentoft, 1988
status

 

Theonella atlantica Van Soest & Stentoft, 1988 View in CoL

Figures 64 View FIGURE 64 a–f

Theonella atlantica Van Soest & Stentoft, 1988: 48 View in CoL , pl. VI figs 5–6, text-fig. 21; Van Soest et al. 2014: table 2 (p. 436), fig. 21b; Pisera & Pomponi 2015: 1302, figs 2A–E, 4–5.

Material examined. RMNH Por. 9825, Suriname, ‘Luymes’ Guyana Shelf Expedition, station 1, 7.1667°N 53.5833°W, depth 104–130 m, bottom sandy calcarenite, 24 August 1970 GoogleMaps .

Description. ( Fig. 64 View FIGURE 64 a) Three short stubby, stalked sponges with smooth surface. Largest individual/fragment, 3.5 cm high, 2 cm in diameter. Color beige in alcohol. Consistency stony, rough to the touch.

Skeleton. At the surface there is a regular cover of smooth phyllotriaenes. Microscleres densely strewn over the cladi of the phyllotriaenes. Choanosomal skeleton a dense and strongly zygosed desma skeleton ( Fig. 64 View FIGURE 64 b) and occasional bundles of thin oxeotes arranged at right angles to the surface.

Spicules. ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 b–f) Tetraclone desmas, oxeas, phyllotriaenes, and microrhabds.

Desmas ( Fig. 64 View FIGURE 64 b), smooth inner branches but peripherally the cladi have strongly tuberculated zygomes. Spicules overall approximately 400 µm in size, individual cladi 50–100 µm in diameter.

Oxeas ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 c,c1), thin, wispy endings, relatively few in number, 350– 1050 x 3 –7.7 µm.

Phyllotriaenes ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 d,d1,e), with smooth, irregular cladi ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 d1), subdivided into primary, secondary and often also tertiary cladi, overall cladome sizes 660–875 µm, rhabdomes conical ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 d), 65–180 x 30–40 µm. Juvenile spicules ( Fig. 64 View FIGURE 64 e) are triaenes with rough surface and three conical cladi.

Acanthomicrorhabds ( Figs 64 View FIGURE 64 f), fusiform, with bluntly pointed apices, densely covered with compound spines, 9–16 x 2.5–3.5 µm.

Distribution and ecology. Guyana Shelf, Barbados, Bonaire, Florida, hard sandy bottoms, 63–161 m ( Guyana Shelf 104–130 m).

Remarks. The Suriname specimens are closely similar to those of Barbados and Bonaire. Pisera & Pomponi (2015) (p. 1303) gave an extensive description of Florida specimens of the species and their data also match closely. These authors also discovered a second Theonella species among the Florida material, T. wrightae Pisera & Pomponi, 2015 , differing from T. atlantica by having oscules on slight elevations at the side of long branches, and a remarkable suite of ectosomal spicules from phyllotriaenes merging into discotriaenes, which also may have tubercles on the upper side. The acanthomicrorhabds of T. wrightae show a much larger variation in length and include cylindrical acanthorhabds of up to 38 µm.

RMNH

National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Porifera

Class

Demospongiae

Order

Tetractinellida

SubOrder

Astrophorina

Family

Theonellidae

Genus

Theonella

Loc

Theonella atlantica Van Soest & Stentoft, 1988

Van, Rob W. M. 2017
2017
Loc

Theonella atlantica

Pisera 2015: 1302
Van 1988: 48
1988
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