Siphonia

Siphonia is a genus of extinct hallirhoid demosponges of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous, from about 125 to 66 million years ago.[1] They lived in the Western Tethys Ocean, in what is now Europe.

Siphonia
Temporal range: 125–66 Ma Early to Late Cretaceous (Aptian to Maastrichtian)
S. pyriformis & S. tulipa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Family: †Siphoniidae
Genus: †Siphonia
Goldfuss, 1826
Species
  • †S. pyriformis
  • †S. tulipa
  • †S. koenigi
  • †S. lycoperdites
  • †S. praemorsa
  • †S. tubulosa
  • †S. benstedii
  • †S. pulchra

Description

They all had distinctive pear-shaped bodies that were attached to the seafloor via a long stem. Their common name, "tulip sponges," refers to their suggestive shape, while the genus name refers to how the spongocoel (the main tube of the sponge body) runs almost the entire length of the sponge, as though it were almost a drinking straw.

References
  1. Paleobiology Database
  • Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 34

Reconstruction of S. pyriformis

Reconstruction of S. tulipa

Reconstruction of S. tulipa, S. pyriformis, and the related Hallirhoa costata

Fossil S. pyriformis


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