Protospongia Salter J. W. 1864. On some New Fossils from the Lingula-flags of Wales. Quarterly journal of the Geological Society. Vol. 20, pp. 233–241. is a genus of Porifera described originally from the Middle Cambrian Menevia Formation of Porth-y-rhaw, St David’s, Pembrokeshire, SW Wales. Protospongia fenestrata Salter (1864) is the type species and, although based on only small fragments of the sponge skeleton, the arrangement of at least 3 orders of cross-shaped spicules (arranged in quadrules) is clearly evident (see Rushton & Phillips 1973, text fig. 2 for graphic).Rushton A. W. A. & Phillips W. E. A. 1973. A Protospongia from the Dalradian of Clare Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland. Palaeontology, vol. 16 (5): p.233 pl. 23 fig. 3. https://www.palass.org/sites/default/files/media/publications/palaeontology/volume_16/vol16_part2_pp231-237.pdf Six orders of spicule size were identified in the largest known example of Protospongia - a specimen of P. hicksi - from Clare Island, Co. Mayo, Republic of Ireland (Rushton & Phillips, op. cit.).
Remarks Protospongia hicksi is probably the only member of this genus of hexactinellid sponge to occur within the Burgess Shale and is rare in the Walcott Quarry where it represents about 0.24% of the community within the Greater Phyllopod bed (Caron and Jackson, 2008).
"Protospongia" rhenana Schlüter, 1892Schlüter, C. A. J. 1892. Protospongia rhenana. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft. Band 44, Heft 4, p. 615 – 618. [Journal of the German Geological Society Volume 44 Issue 4, pp. 615 – 618.] from the Lower Devonian (Emsian) Hunsrück Slate of Germany, had previously been included in the genus due to the architecture of its spicules resembling that of P. hicksi. Mehl (1996), however, has since transferred Schlüter's species to the genus Cyathophycus Walcott, 1879.Mehl, D. 1996: Phylogenie und Evolutionsökologie der Hexactinellida (Porifera) im Palaeozoikum. Geologisch-Paläontologische Mitteilungen Innsbruck 4, 1–55.Walcott, C.D. 1879. Fossils of the Utica Slate. Transactions of the Albany Institute 10, 18–19.
Burgess Shale fossils of P. hicksi consist entirely of fragments and isolated, cruciform spicules, so the living animal's average to maximum size and growth habitus cannot be determined. If those "Protospongia" fossils outside of the Burgess Shale are of or closely related to P. hicksi, then the growth habitus of various species would have been globular, such as P. tetranema, to cup-shaped, like Cyathophycus rhenana.
The generic homonym Protospongia Kent, 1880,Kent, W. S. 1880. A manual of the Infusoria: including a description of all known flagellate, ciliate and tentaculiferous Protozoa, British and foreign, and an account of the organisation and affinities of the sponges. Vol. 1(2) pp. 144-288, 2 figures, plates 9-16. London: David Bogue. is a nom. illeg. because taxonomically the type species, Protospongia haeckelii Kent, is now regarded as belonging to Proterospongia Kent, 1881Kent, W. S. 1881. A manual of the Infusoria: including a description of all known flagellate, ciliate and tentaculiferous Protozoa, British and foreign, and an account of the organisation and affinities of the sponges. Vol. 2(5) pp. 576-914, 11 figures, plates 33-40. London: D. Bogue. Proterospongia is a genus of single-celled aquatic organisms which form colonies. It belongs to the choanoflagellate class and, interestingly, Choanoflagellates are a group of free-living unicellular and colonial flagellate eukaryotes considered to be the closest living relatives of animals.
References
External links Burgess Shale species 108