Premium
Clypeatula cooperensis gen. n., sp. n., a new freshwater sponge (Porifera, Spongillidae) from the Rocky Mountains of Montana, USA
Author(s) -
Peterson Kevin J.,
Addis John S.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
zoologica scripta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.204
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1463-6409
pISSN - 0300-3256
DOI - 10.1046/j.1463-6409.2000.00044.x
Subject(s) - biology , sponge , monophyly , genus , zoology , ecology , phylogenetic tree , botany , clade , biochemistry , gene
A new genus and species of freshwater sponge, Clypeatula cooperensis , collected from three lakes in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, USA, are described. The sponge grows as a hard, disc‐shaped encrustation on the undersides of rocks and logs. It lacks microscleres and has amphioxeal megascleres that often show a slight midregion bulb and are usually covered with short, conical spines except at their tips. The sponge is also non‐gemmulating, overwintering in a regressed state in which choanocyte chambers are reduced in number. Phylogenetic analyses of complete 18S rDNA sequences of C. cooperensis , Ephydatia muelleri , Spongilla lacustris and Eunapius fragilis suggest that C. cooperensis is more closely related to Ephydatia muelleri than to Spongilla lacustris or Eunapius fragilis . Our data, nonetheless, do not rule out the possibility that C. cooperensis is more closely related to the non‐gemmulating sponges of Lake Baikal (Russia) than it is to Ephydatia muelleri . These phylogenetic analyses support the erection of a new genus, the monophyly of freshwater sponges belonging to the families Spongillidae and Lubomirskiidae, and the monophyly of demosponges.