Cyathophycus (Protospongia) rhenana (Schlueter, 1892)

Taxonomy

Glass Sponge

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera Grant 1836
Class: Hexactinellida Schmidt 1870
Order: Reticulosa Reid 1958
Family: Hintzespongiidae Finks 1983
Genus: Cyathophycus
Species: Cyathophycus rhenana
Author Citation Schlueter, 1892

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Devonian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Early
International Age: Early Emsian

Stratigraphy

Hunsrück Slate Group
Kaub Formation
Eschenbach Member

Biostratigraphy

Bundenbach Fossil Biota

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Width: 9 cm

Location

Bundenbach, "Grube Eschenbach"
Birkenfeld
Rhineland-Palatinate
Germany

• devonian
• emsian
• hunsrueck slate
• kaub
• protospongia
• tff-oilshale-po1684

Comments

Old name: Protospongia rhenana

Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org.

Description from Südkamp 2017, p. 25:"The large sponge has the outline of a vase, flask or bowl. It has mainly bundled diactines of the first order, which are woven into a rectangular mesh, but in contrary to Retifungus are not coiled (fibre optics network). In addition, the sponge has a lot of small triaxones of the second order lying in one plane, which radiate hexagonal (so called hexatines) or possibly also tetra radial (stauracts), because of the reduction of one of the axes of a triaxon."

References:
Schlüter, Clemens (1892) Protospongia rhenana. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft Band 44 Heft 4 (1892), p. 615 - 618.
Mehl, D. (1996) Phylogenie und Evolutionsökologie der Hexactinellida (Porifera) im Paläozoikum. Geol. Paläont. Mitt. Insbruck. Sonderband 4, p. 1-55.
Bartels, C., Poschmann, M., Schindler, T. & Wuttke, M. (2002) Palaeontology and palaeoecology of the Kaub Formation (Lower Emsian, Lower Devonian) at Bundenbach (Hunsrück, SW Germany). Metalla (Bochum) 9.2, 2002, 105-122.
Südkamp, W. (2017) Life in the Devonian. Identification book Hunsrück Slate fossils. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München.