Sphaerospongia is an extinct genus of organism found in marine beds of Devonian age. Its classification is enigmatic, but it is typically placed among the sponges[2] or the receptaculites.[3] The organism has a surface covered with hexagonal plates, and some early taxonomists placed it among the echinoderms.[4] It is found in close association with the horn coral Tabulophyllum traversensis in the Onate Formation of New Mexico, US, where it provides a substrate for the coral.[5]
| Sphaerospongia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Clade: | Viridiplantae |
| Division: | Chlorophyta |
| Class: | UTC clade |
| Order: | Dasycladales (?) |
| Family: | †Receptaculitaceae |
| Genus: | †Sphaerospongia Pengelly, 1861 |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
References
edit- ^ Sphaerospongia . Retrieved through: Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera on 14 January 2022.
- ^ Day, J.; Uyeno, T.; Norris, W.; Witzke, B.J.; Bunker, B.J. (1996). "Middle-Upper Devonian relative sea-level histories of central and western North American interior basins". Geological Society of America Special Papers. 306: 259–275. ISBN 9780813723068. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Nitecki, Matthew H.; Mutvei, Harry; Nitecki, Doris V. (1999). "Quaestio disputata: Morphological Reductionism". Receptaculitids. pp. 109–142. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-4691-7_6. ISBN 978-1-4613-7124-3.
- ^ Nitecki, Matthew H. (1999). Receptaculitids : a phylogenetic debate on a problematic fossil taxon. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 9780306462016. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Sorauf, James E. (1987). "The rugose coral Tabulophyllum traversensis from the Oñate Formation (Middle Devonian) of the Mud Springs Mountains, New Mexico". Journal of Paleontology. 61 (1): 14–20. Bibcode:1987JPal...61...14S. doi:10.1017/S0022336000028158. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1305128. S2CID 131923020.
