A North American freshwater sponge (Eospongilla morrisonensis new genus and species) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Colorado
Stan P. Dunagan
University of Tennessee, Department of Geological Sciences, Knoxville, TN, United States
Eospongilla morrisonensis n. gen. and sp., the oldest-described freshwater sponge (Demospongea: Spongillidae), is found in the Upper Jurassic (?Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian to Tithonian) Morrison Formation, east-central Colorado, U.S.A. Eospongilla morrisonensis occurs within the well-developed lacustrine carbonate succession of the Morrison Formation, and is represented by two micritic body fossils with calcite-replaced megascleres that range in length from 180 to 300 mu m and in diameter from 20 to 35 mu m. Megascleres are simple oxeas and strongyles and lack apparent ornamentation, possibly due to the diagenetic replacement. The oxeas are straight but the strongyles display a slight curvature. Microscleres are absent; gemmoscleres were not observed.
This record provided courtesy of AGI/GeoRef.
