Geodia simplex , Schmidt 1870

• Main Authors: Cárdenas, Paco, Rapp, Hans Tore, Klitgaard, Anne Birgitte, Best, Megan, Thollesson, Mikael, Tendal, Ole Secher
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2013
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Porifera; Demospongiae; Tetractinellida; Geodiidae; Geodia; Geodia simplex; Arctic; Greenland; Norway; Burton; Pedersen; Tuxen; Egedesminde; Iceland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5293519; https://zenodo.org/record/5293519

GEODIA SIMPLEX SCHMIDT, 1870 Geodia simplex , Schmidt, 1870: p. 70; Arndt, 1913: p. 112; Burton, 1930: p. 490; 1946: p. 856. Type locality and deposition of holotype: Egedesminde, West Greenland, 50–90 m, ZMUC-DEM-319 (wet specimen). Burton (1946) also speaks of a Schmidt spicule preparation from the type, still in the BMNH collection today (BMNH 70.5.3.79). Discussion: Arndt (1913) identified with hesitation a small specimen from Norway as G. simplex the specimen has not been located. Burton (1946), after an examination of spicule preparations from the type material from Greenland, concluded that G. simplex is probably identical to G. cydonium , which explains why Burton (1959) later mentioned G. cydonium as occurring in Greenland and Norway. Also, Koltun (1966: 57) doubted the existence of G. simplex as an independent species. We have inspected the holotype, a whole specimen cut in two. It is a rounded lump, measuring c . 7 cm in diameter and 3 cm in height; the surface is damaged in some areas, and algae are growing on it. The cortex is 1 mm thick. The spicule repertoire is clearly that of G. cydonium from the Mediterranean Sea. However, there must be a mistake, most likely from Schmidt’s side, as the label is in his handwriting. The algae growing on the specimen do not occur in Greenland; on the contrary, one of the species is Mediterranean, another one Mediterranean–southern boreal (Dr Poul Møller Pedersen, pers. comm.). We therefore confirm that G. simplex is a junior synonym of G. cydonium . As molecular results suggest that G. cydonium is a species complex (Cárdenas et al ., 2011), only a thorough morphological revision of this complex will tell us to which species group G. simplex belongs. : Published as part of Cárdenas, Paco, Rapp, Hans Tore, Klitgaard, Anne Birgitte, Best, Megan, Thollesson, Mikael & Tendal, Ole Secher, 2013, Taxonomy, biogeography and DNA barcodes of Geodia species (Porifera, Demospongiae, Tetractinellida) in the Atlantic boreo-arctic region, pp. 251-311 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 169 (2) on page 298, DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12056, http://zenodo.org/record/5287119 : {"references": ["Schmidt O. 1870. Grundzuge einer Spongien-Fauna des atlantischen Gebietes. (Wilhelm Engelmann: Leipzig): iii - iv, 1 - 88, pls I - VI.", "Arndt W. 1913. Zoologische Ergebnisse der ersten Lehr- Expedition der P. Scottlanderschen Jubilaums-Stifting. Jahresberichte der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur vaterlandische Cultur 90: 110 - 119.", "Burton M. 1930. Norwegian sponges from the Norman collection. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1930: 487 - 546, pls I - II.", "Burton M. 1946. Notes on certain species of Geodia described by Oscar Schmidt. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Ser. 11, xiii: 856 - 860.", "Burton M. 1959. Spongia. In: Fridriksson A, Tuxen SL, eds. The zoology of Iceland. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1 - 71.", "Koltun VM. 1966. Four-rayed sponges of Northern and Far Eastern seas of the USSR (order Tetraxonida). Opredeliti Faunei SSSR 90. (Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR: Moscow, Leningrad): 1 - 112, pls I - XXXVIII (in Russian).", "Cardenas P, Xavier JR, Reveillaud J, Schander C, Rapp HT. 2011. Molecular phylogeny of the Astrophorida (Porifera, Demospongiae) reveals an unexpected high level of spicule homoplasy. PLoS ONE 6: e 18318."]}