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Science 24 August 1984:
Vol. 225. no. 4664, pp. 835 - 837
DOI: 10.1126/science.225.4664.835
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Articles

Favositid Tabulates: Evidence for Poriferan Affinity

JÓZEF KAZacuteMIERCZAK 1

1 Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Paleobiology, Al. Zwirki i Wigury 93, PL-02089 Warszawa, Poland

Calcitic pseudomorphs of desma-like siliceous spicules found in the calcareous skeleton of a Devonian thamnoporid support the proposal of poriferan origin of at least some favositid Tabulata. These favositids arose from a group of Ordovician lithistid demosponges that adapted to toxic calcium excess in shallow, tropical marine environments by developing calicoblasts within the pinacoderm, supplementing their primary siliceous spicular skeletons with basally secreted calcium carbonate. They are tentatively recognized as an order of the subclass Sclerospongiae (class Demospongiae).

Submitted on October 17, 1983
Accepted on May 17, 1984


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Palaeozoic corals, I: origins and relationships.
C. T. Scrutton (1997)
Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 51, 177-208
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)