First record of chambered hexactinellid sponges from the Palaeozoic

Abstract

Most chambered sponges (the polyphyletic group of "Sphinctozoa") are hypercalcified types and most of them probably belong to the Demospongia. "Spinctozoa" occur from the Cambrian to the Recent and are the most abundant sponges in Late Palaeozoic and Triassic reefs and shallow water limestones. Among hexactinellid sponges, chambered forms are very rare including taxa only from the Late Jurassic and the Late Triassic of Europe, Russia, Tadjikistan, Iran or China. There are five genera described Casearia Quenstedt, Caucasocoelia Boiko, Dracolychnos Wu & Xiao, Pseudo-verticillites Boiko and Innaecoelia Boiko, the latter of which is synomised with Casearia by most authors.