Bomba endeavourensis Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai
Creators: name: Kelly, Michelle
name: Sim-Smith, Carina
name: Stone, Robert
name: Reiswig, Toufiek Samaai Henry
name: Austin, William
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Poecilosclerida
Latrunculiidae
Bomba
Bomba endeavourensis

description: Bomba endeavourensis Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai gen. et sp. nov.
(Fig. 2 A, 11; Tables 5, 8, 9)
Latrunculia sp. Austin & Ott 1996: 18.
Material examined. Holotype— RBCM 014-00120-001: Endeavour Ridge off British Columbia coast, Station A1448, 47.7° N, 129.217° W, 2500 m, 4 Aug 1984, collected by V. Tunnicliffe. Paratypes — RBCM 014-00120- 0 0 2, RBCM 014-00120-003, RBCM 014-00120-004, same location data.
Type location. Endeavour Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, part of a hydrothermally and seismically active area near the Juan de Fuca and Pacific tectonic plates offshore British Columbia, Canada.
Distribution. Endeavour Ridge.
Description. Tiny, low-lying, hemispherical sponges, ranging in diameter from 4–12 mm, with 2–3 long ‘horns’ arising from deep within the choanosome, projecting well beyond the surface. The choanosome of each sponge is either fully or partially detached; the sponges appear as hollow, leathery casings. Large stiff bundles of spicules protrude well beyond the surface of the sponge, forming large, conical, horn-like projections, 1–2 mm high. No oscules obvious. Colour in preservative is translucent white, mottled with reddish brown patches (Fig. 11 A, B), composed of tiny pigmented dots at the apex of each microsclere, visible under magnification (Fig. 11 B). A thick, dense, cross-hatch mesh of megascleres forms the leathery casing of the sponge (Fig. 11 B).
Skeleton. Crust-like ectosome, 238 (137–414) µm thick, composed of a tangential, cross-hatched layer of megascleres on top of which is a patchy palisade of erect anisodiscorhabds. Thick, solid, compact bundles of megascleres emerge from within the choanosome, traverse the ectosome and project from the upper and lateral surfaces. Bundles are shaped like tapered horns, 2–4 ‘horns’ per specimen. Horns range in length from 1‒4 mm, and taper from 2‒7 mm at base, to a rounded point. The ectosomal crust curves up the outside of each horn for a short distance.
Spicules. Megascleres (Fig. 11 C, D; Table 5), anisostyles, heads spined retrovertly (spines face away from head along shaft, flattened against shaft), spines low granular bumps in immature forms (Fig. 10D), 618 (362‒722) × 24 (17‒27) µm, n = 50.
Microscleres (Fig. 11 E–G; Table 5), anisodiscorhabds with a basal whorl, a median whorl and an apical whorl, 51 (36‒57) × 38 (29‒43) µm, n = 50 (Fig. 11 F).
Substrate, depth range and ecology. Rocky substrate, 2500 m.
Etymology. Named for the type location, Endeavour Ridge, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Remarks. Bomba endeavourensis gen. et sp. nov. is highly unusual and unprecedented in the Latrunculiidae, possessing protruding ‘horns’ of megascleres, a shell-like morphology, and three-whorled anisodiscorhabds.
description: Published as part of Kelly, Michelle, Sim-Smith, Carina, Stone, Robert, Reiswig, Toufiek Samaai Henry & Austin, William, 2016, New taxa and arrangements within the family Latrunculiidae (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida), pp. 1-48 in Zootaxa 4121 (1) on pages 29-31, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4121.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/265513