Siphonia

Siphonia Temporal range: Early to Late Cretaceous (Aptian to Maastrichtian)
S. pyriformis & S. tulipa
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Porifera
Class:	Demospongiae
Family:	†Siphoniidae
Genus:	†Siphonia Goldfuss, 1826
Species
†S. pyriformis †S. tulipa †S. koenigi †S. lycoperdites †S. praemorsa †S. tubulosa †S. benstedii †S. pulchra

Siphonia is a genus of extinct hallirhoid demosponges of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous, from about 125 to 66 million years ago. They lived in the Western Tethys Ocean, in what is now Europe.

Description

They all had distinctive pear-shaped bodies that were attached to the seafloor via a long stem. Their common name, "tulip sponges," refers to their suggestive shape, while the genus name refers to how the spongocoel (the main tube of the sponge body) runs almost the entire length of the sponge, as though it were almost a drinking straw.

Gallery

• 
  Siphonia lycoperdites , on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano
• 
  Siphonia pyriformis - Muséum de Toulouse (fr)

References

• Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 34

External links

Reconstruction of S. pyriformis [1]

Reconstruction of S. tulipa [2]

Reconstruction of S. tulipa, S. pyriformis, and the related Hallirhoa costata [3]

Fossil S. pyriformis [4]