A new Middle Ordovician sponge from western Newfoundland

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Author: Rigby, J. Keith
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1977
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e77-231; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e77-231

Two specimens of the new sponge Epiplastospongia coactilis. n.gen., n.sp., have been collected from the Middle Ordovician Long Point Group of western Newfoundland. The massive sponge has a three dimensional skeletal net composed of ascending and of roughly horizontal, discontinuous, structural elements, all composed of laminated to concentrically layered, unsculptured, monaxial spicules overgrowing a core of monaxons. The Newfoundland sponge appears to be most closely related to Saccospongia from the Ordovician of Tennessee.