genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
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 ...
s of the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Cladorhizidae
Cladorhizidae is a family of demosponges which are carnivorous and prey on crustaceans and other small animals. They are deep sea sponges typically found on oceanic ridges and seamount systems. As of 2017, nine new species have been discovered ...
junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...
, but has recently become accepted as a distinct genus.
33 named species are placed in this genus at present, but at least two additional undescribed ones are known to exist, while some of the described ones are known only from a few specimens or (e.g. the enigmatic '' Chondrocladia occulta'') just a single one, and their validity and/or placement in ''Chondrocladia'' is doubtful. ''Chondrocladia'' sponges are stipitate, with a stalk frequently anchored in the substrate by
rhizoid
Rhizoids are protuberances that extend from the lower epidermal cells of bryophytes and algae. They are similar in structure and function to the root hairs of vascular land plants. Similar structures are formed by some fungi. Rhizoids may be unic ...
s and an egg-shaped body, sometimes with branches that end in inflatable spheres.
Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s assignable to this genus are known since the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
, less than 2 million years ago. But given its
deep sea
The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
, ''Chondrocladia'' may well have been around for much longer – perhaps since the
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
, as characteristic
spicule
Spicules are any of various small needle-like anatomical structures occurring in organisms
Spicule may also refer to:
*Spicule (sponge), small skeletal elements of sea sponges
*Spicule (nematode), reproductive structures found in male nematodes ( ...
s (termed "microcricorhabds" or "trochirhabds"), almost identical to those of some living ''Chondrocladia'', are known from
Early Jurassic
The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic-J ...
rocks almost 200 million years old.
Carnivory
These sponges gained media attention when a new
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, a gourd-shaped carnivorous sponge, was featured in reports of finds off the coast of Antarctica. The new ''Chondrocladia'' was one of 76 sponge species identified in the seas off Antarctica by the
Antarctic Benthic Deep-Sea Biodiversity Project
The ''Antarctic Benthic Deep-Sea Biodiversity Project (ANDEEP)'' is an international project to investigate deep-water biology of the Scotia and Weddell seas. Benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of wat ...
(ANDEEP) between 2002 and 2005, conducted aboard the German research vessel ''
Polarstern
RV ''Polarstern'' (meaning pole star) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. ''Polarstern'' was built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and Nobiskrug in R ...
''.
Carnivorous sponges, which use hooked spicules to capture small
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s, have been known only since 1995, when ''
Asbestopluma hypogea
''Asbestopluma'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Cladorhizidae.
The genus has cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the wor ...
'', another genus of the family Cladorhizidae, was identified in
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
sea caves offshore
La Ciotat
La Ciotat (; oc, label= Provençal Occitan, La Ciutat ; in Mistralian spelling ''La Ciéutat''; 'the City') is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southern France. It is the southeasternmo ...
(
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
) by
Jean Vacelet
Jean Vacelet is a French marine biologist who specialises in the underwater fauna of the Mediterranean. After earning his licence at the Faculté des Sciences de Marseille and learning to dive in 1954, he specialised in the study of sponges at th ...
and
Nicole Boury-Esnault
Nicole Boury-Esnault is a retired French researcher of sponges, formerly at Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Aix-Marseille University.
Research
In 1995, Nicole Boury-Esnault and Jean Vacelet discovered a species of carnivorous sponges of t ...
. Carnivory has since turned out to be common and typical for this sponge family. Unlike their relatives, ''Chondrocladia'' still possesses the water flow system and
choanocyte
Choanocytes (also known as "collar cells") are cells that line the interior of asconoid, syconoid and leuconoid body types of sponges that contain a central flagellum, or ''cilium,'' surrounded by a collar of microvilli which are connected by a th ...
s typical of sponges, albeit highly modified to inflate balloon-like structures that are used for capturing prey.
Chondrocladia arenifera
''Chondrocladia'' is a genus of carnivorous demosponges of the family Cladorhizidae. '' Neocladia'' was long considered a junior synonym, but has recently become accepted as a distinct genus.
33 named species are placed in this genus at present, ...
Chondrocladia concrescens
''Chondrocladia concrescens'' (formerly ''Cladorhiza concrescens'') is a species of deep-sea carnivorous sponge in the family Cladorhizidae. It is commonly known as the "ping pong tree sponge" due to its distinctive tree-like shape with multiple ...
Chondrocladia lampadiglobus
''Chondrocladia'' is a genus of carnivorous demosponges of the family Cladorhizidae. '' Neocladia'' was long considered a junior synonym, but has recently become accepted as a distinct genus.
33 named species are placed in this genus at present, ...
'' Vacelet, 2006 –
Ping-pong Tree Sponge
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
Kelly
Kelly may refer to:
Art and entertainment
* Kelly (Kelly Price album)
* Kelly (Andrea Faustini album)
* ''Kelly'' (musical), a 1965 musical by Mark Charlap
* "Kelly" (song), a 2018 single by Kelly Rowland
* ''Kelly'' (film), a 1981 Canadi ...
& Schlacher-Hoenlinger, 2009
* ''
Chondrocladia turbiformis
''Chondrocladia turbiformis'' is a recently discovered species of carnivorous sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular ...
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
)
* '' Chondrocladia yatsui'' Topsent, 1930
''C. alaskensis'' and ''C. pulchra'' are better placed in ''
Crambe
''Crambe'' is a genus of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to a variety of habitats in Europe, Turkey, southwest and central Asia and eastern Africa. They carry dense racemes of tiny white or yellow flowers ...
'' or '' Monanchora''.
''C. dura'', ''C. ramosa'' and ''C. sessilis'' are
junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...
s of ''
Iotrochota purpurea
''Iotrochota'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Iotrochotidae.
The species of this genus are found in tropical or subtropical regions.
Species:
*'' Iotrochota acerata''
*'' Iotrochota agglomerata''
*'' Iotrochota arenosa''
*''I ...
''.
''C. flabelliformis'' is now in '' Neocladia''.