Ascandra contorta
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Porifera
- Class: Calcarea
- Order: Clathrinida
- Family: Dendyidae
- Genus: Ascandra
- Species: Ascandra contorta
Visual Description
[Figure] Dataset imagery and species descriptions depict Ascandra contorta as a whitish encrusting to globular/irregular mass, with the body formed by closely anastomosed (interconnected) tubes. Descriptions also note a finely hispid (bristly) surface.
Species Overview
Ascandra contorta is a calcareous sponge (Calcarea) in the clathrinid family Dendyidae. Records emphasize attachment to rock substrates, including occurrences under stones in the intertidal zone.
Morphology and Skeleton (spicules)
Material summarized from the eastern Mediterranean includes a skeleton/spicule assemblage with triactines, tetractines, diactines, and trichoxeas.
Ecology and Distribution
Published records summarized for eastern Mediterranean material indicate the species occurs on rock at roughly 10–30 m in the east Atlantic and Mediterranean, and also can occur in the intertidal under stones.
A Turkish record reports Ascandra contorta from the Sea of Marmara (route/station K24) on rock at about 3 m depth, treated as a new record for the eastern Mediterranean (and as a new record for the marine fauna of Turkey).
Gallery
References
- ↑ Dataset view for Animalia / Porifera / Calcarea / Clathrinida / Dendyidae / Ascandra / contorta constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.