Systematics of 'lithistid' tetractinellid demosponges from the Tropical Western Atlantic – implications for phylodiversity and bathymetric distribution

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We acknowledge the Government of the Bahamas, Curac ̧ao, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Bonaire and St. Vincent Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, Honduras, Gulf of Mexico, and the Philippines, for granting permission to conduct research in their territorial waters. Thirty-two new specimens and associated data were supplied by the NIWA Invertebrate Collection (NIC) for sequencing; we are particularly grateful to Sadie Mills for her diligent assistance with loans. A further 31 specimens and associated images and data were supplied by Lori J. Bell and the Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF) for sequencing; these were collected under contract to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. We thank colleagues Amy Wright, John Reed and Megan Conkling (HBOI-FAU) for their assistance with the HBOI collection of samples and associated data. AS thanks Sergio Vargas (Dept. of Earth- and Environmental Sciences, LMU Munich, Germany) for his help with the modification of the phylodiversity script. Nicole Enghuber is thanked for her help in spicule preparations and Simone Scha ̈tzle is thanked for sequencing assistance (both Dept. of Earth- and Environmental Sciences, LMU Munich, Germany). AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Astrid Schuster conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft, identified genera/species. Shirley A Pomponi contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, approved the final draft, identified genera/species and contributed to the sampling. Andrzej Pisera contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft, identified genera/species. Paco Cárdenas authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft, identified genera/species. Michelle Kelly contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft, identified genera/species and contributed to the sampling. Gert Wörheide contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft. Dirk Erpenbeck conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft. FUNDING Financial support for this study was provided by the German Science Foundation to DE and GW (DFG ER 611/3-1, DFG Wo869/15-1, respectively). The LMU Mentoring and the HELGE AX:Son JOHNSON STIFTELSE provided funding for AS to visit HBOI (Florida, USA) and NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand). Financial support for the R/V Seward Johnson/Johnson Sea Link I+II expedition was provided by HBOI. MK's participation was funded by NIWA under Coasts and Oceans Research Programme 2 Marine Biological Resources: Discovery and definition of the marine biota of New Zealand (2016/2017 and 2017/2018 SCI). PC and SP received support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through the SponGES project (Grant agreement No. 679849). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.