We present a review of astrophorid species possessing calthrops megascleres as structural megascleres (including species with dichotriaene modifications, but excluding mesotriaene and trichotriaene bearing species). Radiating oxeas characteristic of most astrophorids are lacking in such sponges, but auxiliary oxeas are apparently present in some species. These sponges are currently assigned to ...

Two species, one each of Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964, and Asbestopluma Topsent, 1901, are recorded from the far eastern Solomon Islands for the first time. Abyssocladia lakwollii sp. nov. is characterized by the pedunculate disc-shape of the body, the unusually large size of the isochelae I microscleres, and by the shape of the cleistochelae with crossed central teeth. Asbestopluma (A.) desmophora ...

It is acknowledged that marine invertebrates produce bioactive natural products that may be useful for developing new drugs. By exploring untapped geographical sources and/or novel groups of organisms one can maximize the search for new marine drugs to treat human diseases. The goal of this paper is to analyse the trends associated with the discovery of new marine natural products from inverteb...

Ten new species of demosponges, assigned to the orders Poecilosclerida, Axinellida and Dictyoceratida, discovered in the Gulf of Alaska and along the Aleutian Island Archipelago are described and compared to relevant congeners. Poecilosclerida include Cornulum globosum n. sp., Megaciella lobata n. sp., M. triangulata n. sp., Artemisina clavata n. sp., A. flabellata n. sp., Coelosphaera (Histode...

BACKGROUND Homoscleromorpha is the fourth major sponge lineage, recently recognized to be distinct from the Demospongiae. It contains <100 described species of exclusively marine sponges that have been traditionally subdivided into 7 genera based on morphological characters. Because some of the morphological features of the homoscleromorphs are shared with eumetazoans and are absent in other sp...

Epithelial tissue - the sealed and polarized layer of cells that regulates transport of ions and solutes between the environment and the internal milieu - is a defining characteristic of the Eumetazoa. Sponges, the most ancient metazoan phylum, are generally believed to lack true epithelia, but their ability to occlude passage of ions has never been tested. Here we show that freshwater sponges ...

BACKGROUND The approximately 350 demosponge species that have been described from Antarctica represent a faunistic component distinct from that of neighboring regions. Sponges provide structure to the Antarctic benthos and refuge to other invertebrates, and can be dominant in some communities. Despite the importance of sponges in the Antarctic subtidal environment, sponge DNA barcodes are scarc...

The n-butanol fraction (BF) obtained from the crude extract of the marine sponge Petromica citrina, the halistanol-enriched fraction (TSH fraction), and the isolated compounds halistanol sulfate (1) and halistanol sulfate C (2), were evaluated for their inhibitory effects on the replication of the Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1, KOS strain) by the viral plaque number reduction assay. The TS...

The history of sponge collecting and systematics in British Columbia is reviewed over the period 1878 to 1966. Recent additions and changes are provided in an on-line species list: www.mareco/org/kml/projects/NEsponges.asp. Hadromerids are the focus of this paper as eight of 19 species in British Columbia are considered new. An additional new species is described from southern California to cla...

Sponges are an ancient metazoan group with broad ecological, evolutionary, and biotechnological importance. As in other marine invertebrates with a biphasic life cycle, the developing sponge undergoes a significant morphological, physiological, and ecological transformation during settlement and metamorphosis. In this study, we compare new transcriptome datasets for three life cycle stages of t...