Pseudosuberites montiniger

Pseudosuberites montiniger (Carter, 1880)

(Figure 10 (a – d))

suberites montiniger Carter 1880, p. 256 – 257; Vosmaer 1882, p. 31 – 32; pl. I, fig. 26; pl. IV, figs 137 – 139; Koltun 1966, p. 96 – 97, fig. 69; pl. XXIV, fig. 3; pl. XXXIII, figs 1 – 2 Pseudosuberites montiniger: Hentschel 1916, p. 6 – 7; Hentschel 1929, p. 870, 927 stylotella gorbunovi: Rezvoi 1931, p. 510 – 512, figs 3 – 5

Description

(Figure 10 (a – b)). Sponge massive, laterally flattened, about 5 cm in height and 4 cm in width. Surface even. The consistency is dense, but quite elastic. The single osculum, surrounded by the short spicular collar, opens at the summit. Colour ash grey. One specimen examined.

Skeleton

(Figure 10 (c)). Skeleton of irregular form and composed of numerous disorderly scattered short spicula-bundles and single spicules. Only near the surface do bundles become arranged radially, forming a distinct brush of spicules.

Spicules

(Figure 10 (d)). Tylostyles often slightly sinuous, rather sharply pointed, with weakly pronounced basal swelling, dimensions: 264.7 – 313.3 – 363.7 (n = 30) × 3.9 – 5.3 – 6.5 (n = 20) µm.

Distribution

The Greenland and Norwegian seas, Barents Sea (south-west of Novaya Zemlya, near northern tip of Kanin Peninsula, Spitsbergen), East Siberian Sea (Bennett Island, st. A-30), Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Strait of Tartary. Depth range: 10 – 426 m.