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A polymastia sponge
Sponge & Cnidarian
A polymastia sponge
Polymastia uberrima (Schmidt, 1870)
WoRMS AphialID
134214
<a href=BOLD:ACQ3835
https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACQ3835 target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline">BOLD:ACQ3835
https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACQ3835
Sample IDs
ARC81502
https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_DataRetrieval_OpenSpecimen?selectedrecordid=ATCSP146-24
ARC81510
https://bench.boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_DataRetrieval_OpenSpecimen?selectedrecordid=ATCSP151-24
Collected
Bay of Fundy, Scotian Shelf, Quebec.
Distinguishing Features
• External appearance (Fig. A): Smooth (apart from marginal collar), custard yellow, cushion with many conical papillae. There is a brown, hispid, margin collar around the edge of the sponge.
• Skeleton (Fig. C): Choanosomal skeleton with thick ascending tracts of largest tylostyles. The auxiliary choanosomal skeleton is composed of bundles of the intermediate tylostyles, the cortex consists of a palisade of the smallest tylostyles.
• Spicules (Fig. B): Tylostyles in three categories. Large tylostyles: 884(1088)1297 by 13(21)30 µm; Intermediate tylostyles: 365(455)546 by 7(11)14 µm; Small tylostyles (ectosomal): 166(204)245 by 6(8)13 µm.
Habitat
Found on bedrock at depths of 10–700 m.
Geographic Range
The holotype locality is Iceland. Leucotype from south-east of Halifax. This species has been recorded from Nova Scotia, Labrador, SW Greenland/Davis Strait, Iceland, north-east Atlantic, Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea, Norway, Svalbard, Finland, Russia, and offshore Arctic Ocean. There are recent Canadian records from the Bay of Fundy, Scotian Shelf, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and eastern Arctic.
Fun Fact
The genus name means 'many breasted' and derives from the numerous conical papillae present on the uper surface of these sponges. These papillae are used for filter feeding.
Barcode Distribution
BIN records are from Norway and the Flemish Cap. Some our samples from Quebec that are in this BIN do not appear morphologically to be P. uberrima so the BIN may represent a species complex.
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