Demosponges
Demospongiae
Demospongiae is the most diverse class in the phylum Porifera. They include 90% of all species of sponges with nearly 7,000 species worldwide (World Porifera Database). They are predominantly leuconoid in structure. Their "skeletons" are made of spicules consisting of fibers of the protein spongin, the mineral silica, or both. Where spicules of silica are present, they have a different shape from those in the otherwise similar glass sponges.
4 branches of this class, most-observed first
Heteroscleromorpha
subclassHeteroscleromorpha
Verongimorpha
subclassVerongimorpha
Keratosa
subclassKeratosa
Myceliospongia
genusMyceliospongia
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Demospongiae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 57736.