Poecilosclerida

Poecilosclerida
Hemimycale columella (Hymedesmiidae)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Poecilosclerida
Topsent, 1928
Families

See text [1]

Poecilosclerida is an order of the demosponge class. It is the most speciose demosponge order with over 2200 species (World Porifera Database[2]). It contains about 25 recognised families. They are characterised by having chelae microscleres, that is, the minute spicules scattered through the tissues, usually in the 10-60 μm range, have a shovel-like structure on the end.[3]

Most of the families are viviparous with parenchymella larvae that are uniformly ciliated.[3]

Monanchora arbuscula (Crambeidae)
  1. ^ WoRMS (2021). "Poecilosclerida". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Porifera news". marinespecies.org. World Porifera Database. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b van Soest, Rob. "Order Poecilosclerida". species-identification.org. Marine Species Identification Portal. Retrieved 4 April 2021.