''Choia'' is a genus of extinct

demosponge Demosponges (Demospongiae) are the most diverse class in the phylum Porifera. They include 76.2% of all species of sponges with nearly 8,800 species worldwide (World Porifera Database). They are sponges with a soft body that covers a har ...

ranging from the Cambrian until the Lower Ordovician periods. Fossils of ''Choia'' have been found in the

Burgess Shale The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fo ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

; the

Maotianshan shales The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their '' Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales ...

of China; the Wheeler Shale in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

; and the Lower Ordovician

Fezouata formation The Fezouata Formation or Fezouata Shale is a geological formation in Morocco which dates to the Early Ordovician.

. It was first described in 1920 by

Charles Doolittle Walcott Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey. Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay G ...

Life habit

''Choia'' was originally thought to be not attached to the sea bed: the living animal was originally thought to rest directly on the substrate, with the radiating spines from the edge of its flattish, conical body, giving an appearance not unlike that of the peak of a big top, with

guy line A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and tents. A thi ...

s. Recently discovered fossils from Lower Ordovician

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

show that the living animal was actually suspended high above the seafloor, attached via stalk-like spines derived from spicules. Water is assumed to have entered the sponge parallel to the spines, being expelled, presumably, from a central opening. Species reached up to an average of 28 mm in diameter.

Presence in the Greater Phyllopod Bed

127 specimens of ''Choia'' are known from the Greater

Phyllopod bed The Phyllopod bed, designated by USNM locality number 35k, is the most famous fossil-bearing member of the Burgess Shale fossil ''Lagerstätte''. It was quarried by Charles Walcott from 1911–1917 (and later named Walcott Quarry), and was t ...

, where they comprise 0.2% of the community.

References

External links

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Picture of ''C. utahensis'' fossil
Burgess Shale fossils Burgess Shale sponges Maotianshan shales fossils Protomonaxonida Early Ordovician extinctions Prehistoric sponge genera Sirius Passet fossils Cambrian first appearances Taxa named by Charles Doolittle Walcott Fossil taxa described in 1920 Early Ordovician genus extinctions Wheeler Shale {{demosponge-stub Cambrian genus extinctions Ordovician genus extinctions