Ascaltis reticulum
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Porifera
- Class: Calcarea
- Order: Clathrinida
- Family: Leucascidae
- Genus: Ascaltis
- Species: Ascaltis reticulum
Visual Description
Ascaltis reticulum is a sponge characterized by a cormus composed of regular, tightly anastomosed tubes, with the presence of water-collecting tubes.[2] Observations of preserved specimens from the TreeOfLife-200M dataset show a complex, interconnected tubular structure typical of the genus.[1]
Biology and Ecology
The skeleton of A. reticulum consists of one category of triactines, one of tetractines, and diactines. The diactines are organized in tufts of two to five spicules arranged perpendicularly in the tubes. Triactines are the most abundant spicule type. The apical actine of the tetractines is cylindrical, blunt, and covered with abundant tiny spines. The diactines are slightly curved, and the tip protruding through the surface is lanceolated.[2]
Specimens have been collected from shaded, vertical hard limestone bottoms.[2] Molecular and morphological evidence supports its classification in the genus Ascaltis, distinct from the genus Clathrina.[2]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Porifera / Calcarea / Clathrinida / Leucascidae / Ascaltis / reticulum constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- 1 2 3 4 Michelle Klautau; Mirna Imešek; Fernanda Correia Azevedo; Bruna Pleše; Vedran Nikolić; Helena Ćetković. Adriatic calcarean sponges (Porifera, Calcarea), with the description of six new species and a richness analysis. European Journal of Taxonomy. 2016. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2016.178.