Species Overview

Higginsia sp. 1 [of Lee].

SPONGE:

Shape: Thickly encrusting
Size_height: -3.3- cm
Size_width: -4.0 - cm
Color_Alive: Not recorded
Color_Preserved: Light brown.
Consistency: Somewhat rigid but compressible.

HABITAT:

Benthic Region: Marine: Deep water
Distribution: Central California: Cordell Bank

Surface:

Texture: in places superficially smooth but hispid
Contour: extremely bumpy. Large lobes extend from base

Skeleton:

Composition: Silicate
Architecture: Thick Styles form irregular reticulation to random with a few obvious tracts to surface. Thin Styles;Oxeas; Acanthoxeas scattered in between.

Ectosome:

Architecture: Cortex of massive numbers of Acanthoxeas;outer ones parallel to surface and tightly scattered within. Large Styles and many small Styles penetrate surface; both heads and tips free.

Choanosome:

Architecture: Thick Styles form irregular reticulation to random with a few obvious tracts to surface. Thin Styles

Megasclere:

Shape: Thin Styles
Length: 1.88-2.59-3.08 mm
Width: 7 -- 12 µ

Megasclere:

Shape: Thick Styles
Length: 848 -1074 - 1285 µ
Width: 41--51 µ

Megasclere:

Shape: Oxeas
Length: 606 -1120- 1660 µ
Width: 7-- 12 µ

Microsclere:

Shape: Bent Acanthoxeas
Length: 60 -145- 229 µ

Microsclere:

Shape: Centrotylote Oxeas
Length: 60 -145- 229 µ