Species Overview

Timea authia de Laubenfels, 1930.

SPONGE:

Shape: Amorphous massive encrusting
Color_Alive: Orange
Color_ Preserved: Drab
Consistency: Spongy; fragile

HABITAT:

Benthic Region: Marine: Intertidal; Subtidal; Deep water
Distribution: Southern California

Surface:

Texture: superficially smooth to minutely tuberculate

Skeleton:

Composition: Silicate
Architecture: fleshy with ascending tracts of densely packed megascleres -points upward

Oscula:

Visible: not evident

Ectosome:

Dermal membrane: to 80 µm thick

Choanosome:

Architecture: fleshy with ascending tracts of densely packed megascleres -points upward
Tract Diameter: 100 -- 125 µ
Tract Distribution: spread into terminal brushes at surface
Spicules: microscleres distributed throughout

Megasclere:

Shape: Tylostyles - Subtylostyles
Length: 210 - (463|536)- 790 µ
Width: 7 -10- 18 µ

Megasclere:

Shape: Styles
Length: 200 - 487- 840 µ
Width: 4 -7- 11 µ

Microsclere:

Shape: Tylasters
Length: 6 -19- 25 µ