Thinly encrusting sponges are diverse and ecologically important, but their taxonomy is challenging. In the Greater Caribbean, the recognition of species of Clathria (Thalysias), most of which are encrusting, is still problematic. Here we describe and clarify the taxonomy of eight species, three new to science, from material collected mostly in Colombia. These are C. (T.) virgultosa, C. (T.) cu...

Two major transitions in animal evolution--the origins of multicellularity and bilaterality--correlate with major changes in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) organization. Demosponges, the largest class in the phylum Porifera, underwent only the first of these transitions and their mitochondrial genomes display a peculiar combination of ancestral and animal-specific features. To get an insight into th...