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New Middle Silurian hexactinellid sponge from the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

J. Keith Rigby  and
Brian D. E. Chatterton
J. Keith Rigby
Affiliation:
Geology Department, Brigham Young University, 210 Page School, Provo, Utah 84602
Brian D. E. Chatterton
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Department of Geology, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E3
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Abstract

Several specimens of the small hexactinellid, Cyathophycus mackenziensis n. sp., were collected from pale brown, shaly mudstone of the Road River Formation. The sponges are of Wenlock age and were collected from near Avalanche Lake, Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. The small, steeply obconical sponges have skeletons in crudely ranked quadrules to at least third-order, with first-order openings generally 2 mm high and 1 mm wide. Successive orders decrease in stages approximately half that of larger elements. A moderately irregular dermal(?) layer with circular parietal gaps is suggested in some specimens. The new species is consistently finer textured than either the type species Cyathophycus reticulatus Walcott, 1879, or the later described Cyathophycus quebecensis Dawson, 1889.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , March 1994 , pp. 218 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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