Sceptrulophora (from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, σκῆπτρον, ''skêptron'' - "sceptre" and -φόρος, ''-phóros'' - "bearing") is an order of
hexactinellid
Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually classified along with other sponges in the phylum Porifera, but some researchers consi ...
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 organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...
s, commonly known as Glass sponges, characterized by sceptrule spicules, that is, "microscleric monactinal triaxonic spicules that include clavules with terminel umbels or smooth heads."
Species of the order Sceptrulophora have existed since the Jurassic period, and still flourish today. While there is ongoing debate about the organization of various taxa in Sceptrulophora, the
monophyly
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic grou ...
of the taxon Sceptrulophora is supported by the presence of
sceptrules in most of the extant species, and has recently been further supported by DNA sequencing.
[MARTIN DOHRMANN, CHRISTIAN GÖCKE, DORTE JANUSSEN, JOACHIM REITNER, CARSTEN LÜTER, GERT WÖRHEIDE, Systematics and spicule evolution in dictyonal sponges (Hexactinellida: Sceptrulophora) with description of two new species, ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'', Volume 163, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 1003–1025]
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00753.x
/ref>[Dohrmann M, Janussen D, Reitner J, Collins AG, Wörheide G. 2008. Phylogeny and evolution of glass sponges (Porifera, Hexactinellida). ''Systematic Biology'' 57:388-405]
Families
* Aphrocallistidae Gray, 1867[Gray, J.E. (1867). Notes on the Arrangement of Sponges, with the Descriptions of some New Genera. ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.'' 1867(2): 492-558, pls XXVII-XXVIII.]
* Auloplacidae Schrammen, 1912[Schrammen, A. 1912. Die Kieselspongien der oberen Kreide von Nordwestdeutschland. II. Teil. Triaxonia (Hexactinellida). Palaeontographica 5 (supplement): 177-385, pls XXV-XLV.]
* Craticulariidae Rauff, 1893[Rauff, H. (1893-1894). Palaeospongiologie. Palaeontographica. 40: i-vi, 1-346, pls I-XVII.]
* Cribrospongiidae Roemer, 1864[Roemer, F.A. 1864. Die Spongitarien des norddeutschen Kreidegebirges. Palaeontographica 8: i-iv, 1-64, pls I-XIX.]
* Euretidae Zittel, 1877[Zittel, K.A. (1877). Studien über fossile Spongien. I: Hexactinellidae. Abhandlungen der Mathematisch-Physikalischen Classe der Königlich-Bayerischen Akademie der Wisseneschaften. München 13(1): 1-63.]
* Farreidae Gray, 1872[Gray, J.E. (1872). Notes on the Classification of the Sponges. ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History.'' (4) 9(54): 442-461]
* Fieldingiidae Tabachnick & Janussen, 2004[Tabachnick, K.R.; Janussen, D. (2004). Description of a new species and subspecies of Fieldingia, erection of a new family Fieldingidae and a new order Fieldingida (Porifera; Hexactinellida; Hexasterophora). In: Pansini M, Pronzato R, Bavestrello G, Manconi R, Sarà M (eds) Sponge Science in the New Millenium. Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti Biologici dell'Universitá di Genova. 68: 623-637.]
* Tretodictyidae Schulze, 1886[Schulze, F.E. (1886). Über den Bau und das System der Hexactinelliden. ''Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (Physikalisch-Mathematisch Classe).'' 1-97.]
* Uncinateridae Reiswig, 2002[Reiswig, H.M. (2002). Family Uncinateridae fam. nov. pp. 1372-1376. In Hooper, J. .A. & van Soest, R.W.M. (ed.) Systema Porifera. A guide to the classification of sponges. Vol. 2 (Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers: New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow).]
References
Hexactinellida
Sponge orders
{{Poriferan-stub