Acanthotetilla
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Porifera
- Class: Demospongiae
- Order: Tetractinellida
- Family: Tetillidae
- Genus: Acanthotetilla
Visual Description
Images aggregated under Acanthotetilla in the TreeOfLife-200M-derived dataset (including specimens assigned to A. gorgonosclera, A. hemisphaerica, and A. celebensis) depict tetillid sponges with an overall compact, dome- or hemispherical to globose body form.
The external surface is commonly shown as densely ornamented/sculptured, giving an appearance consistent with a “spiny/armed” look typical of many tetillids. In these depictions, the dominant diagnostic impression is the rounded growth form rather than branching, with specimens presented as single compact bodies.
Taxonomic status and nomenclature
The genus Acanthotetilla (Burton, 1959) is treated as accepted in major biodiversity databases.
Classification, systematics, and evidence
Molecular phylogenetic reassessment of Antarctic Tetillidae using combined morphological re-examination and gene data (including COI and 18S) underscores that tetillid taxonomy can be sensitive to specimen misidentification and that morphologically distinct taxa may show limited divergence under commonly used genetic markers. This supports the general need for integrated evidence when evaluating species and genus boundaries within Tetillidae.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Dataset view for Animalia / Porifera / Demospongiae / Tetractinellida / Tetillidae / Acanthotetilla constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.