Poecilosclerida | |
---|---|
Hemimycale columella (Hymedesmiidae) | |
Scientific 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]