Cystothalamia vandegraaffi new species and other Sphinctozoan sponges from the Upper Carboniferous of Spain

Abstract

New and previously described “Sphinctozoan” taxa have been collected from six different localities in northern Spain, all of them dated as Late Carboniferous, from Moskovian to Kasimovian in age. The sphinctozoans in the collection are all assigned to the Demospongiae: a new species of polyglomerate type, Cystothalamia vandegraaffi n. sp., and known species Amblysiphonella barroisi Steinmann, 1882, Amblysiphonella carbonaria (Steinmann, 1882), Discosiphonella mammilosa (King, 1943), Discosiphonella maior (Van de Graaff, 1969), and Sollasia ostiolata Steinmann, 1882. Some of these specimens present interesting paleoecological features, such as the use of a piece of calcareous algae as a hard substrate in a soft muddy bottom and a possible branching pattern determined by photophilic or negative geotaxic growth.