Kolesnikov K.A.1,2*, Ivantsov A.Yu.2, Zhuravlev A.Yu.1,2 2024. An elusive middle Cambrian protospongiid (Porifera, Hexactinellida) from the Siberian Platform // Invertebrate Zoology. Vol.21. No.2: 140–146 [in English].
1 Department of Biological Evolution, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1-12, Moscow 119234 Russia.
2 Borissiak Palaeontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya St. 123, Moscow 117647 Russia.
* Corresponding author
Kirill Kolesnikov kolkir@mail.ru ORCID 0000-0002-7609-335X
Andrey Zhuravlev ayzhur@mail.ru ORCID 0000-0003-1611-6916
Andrey Ivantsov ivancov@paleo.ru ORCID 0000-0001-8341-7431
doi: 10.15298/invertzool.21.2.02
ABSTRACT: Sponges played a crucial role in the shaping of Cambrian marine ecosystems, commonly being principal filter feeders among the benthos. While calcified archaeocyaths were main Cambrian reef builders, spiculate and soft sponges were ubiquitous elements of other level-bottom palaeocommunities. Of them, representatives of the family Protospongiidae possessing a peculiar regular skeleton of cross-like spicules (stauractines) occurred in the majority of the Cambrian Lagerstätten worldwide. A find of a Protospongia skeleton in the middle Cambrian (c. 504–502 million years ago) of the south-eastern Siberian Platform further expands data on the global distribution of this genus and the family as a whole and provides a new information on their specific skeletal morphology.
KEY WORDS: sponges, Protospongiidae, Reticulosa, middle Cambrian, Siberia.