New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Revision of the sponge genus Pleroma Sollas (Lithistida: Megamorina:
Pleromidae) from New Zealand and New Caledonia, and description of a new species
Michelle Kelly
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Limited
Private Bag 109 695
Newmarket
Auckland, New Zealand
email: m.kelly@niwa.co.nz
Abstract Diagnostic morphological characters for the
sponge genus Pleroma, relicts from a diverse group of lithistid sponges
(Suborder Megamorina: Family Pleromidae) that were once common in the north-western
European late Jurassic to the late Cretaceous (c. 140-65 Ma), are reviewed
following examination of new collections of known species from northern New
Zealand and the south New Caledonian slope. Before this work, only two living
species of Pleroma were known, the genus holotype P. turbinatum
Sollas from Fiji, and P. menoui Lévi & Lévi from
south New Caledonian seamounts. A new species, P. aotea n. sp., is
described from northern New Zealand waters, extending the suite of diagnostic
characters to include nodulose megaclone desmas and amphiaster microscleres.
Megaclone desmas, indistinguishable from those of P. menoui and P.
aotea n. sp., are recorded from the Oamaru Diatomite in southern New Zealand
(late Eocene), and the Tutuiri Greensand, Chatham Island (late Palaeocene),
respectively. These published and new microfossil discoveries establish a
disjunct geographic distribution for Pleroma in New Zealand.
Keywords Porifera; Demospongiae; Lithistida; Megamorina;
Pleromidae; Pleroma; Cretaceous; Palaeocene; Eocene; New Zealand; New
Caledonia; new species
M02021 Received 2 April 2002; accepted 25 July 2002; Published 20 March
2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2003, Vol. 37:
113-127
0028-8330/03/3701-0113 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand
2003
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