I am working on marine sponge species identification in biofouling samples (in Sri Lankan coast). Its my first time on sponge identification using spicule morphology.
Managed to identify up to genus level for some samples using spicule morphology and sample morphology. But I eagerly want to learn on how to identify them up to species level.
But its way more complex than I thought may be my approach is not right.
Sadly I don't have any particular guides as well, I do everything just by using existing research papers and plates on sponge taxonomy which are available in the internet.
So I would like to know your recommendations and ideas on how to start sponge identification in the correct way..
Please do recommend some guides as well.
Thanks.
Porifera is a huge phylum. It depends very much on the group (Demospongiae, Hexactinellida...) and the region you are working on. For either group, there are useful identifcation tools available on the web. For in-depth taxonomical studies I am afraid there is no way round to read the monographs and to study the type specimens.
I hope that this attached pdf document "DEEP–SEA SPONGES OF THE INDIAN OCEAN" will be useful.
Hope that these links will be useful:
- Hooper N.A., Van Soest R.W.M., 2002. Systema Porifera, A guide to the classification of sponges, Volume 1 & 2. 1760 p.—https://www.researchgate.net/
- Goudie L., Norman M. & Finn J. , 2013. Sponges, A Museum Victoria Field Guide to Marine Life , 135p.
- Hall K.A. & Hooper J.N.A., 2014. SpongeMaps, an online community for sponge taxonomy. Accessed at www.spongemaps.org on 2018-05-31
- Van Soest R.W.M, Boury-Esnault N., Hooper J.N.A., Rützler K., de Voogd N.J., Alvarez B., Hajdu E., Pisera A.B., Manconi R., Schönberg C., Klautau M., Picton B., Kelly M., Vacelet J., Dohrmann M., Díaz M.-C., Cárdenas P., Carballo J. L., Ríos P., Downey R., 2018. World Porifera database. Accessed at http://www.marinespecies.org/porifera on 2018-05-31
Dr Christian Neumann, Thanks for the informative answer.
Many of the sponges that I am working on are Demospongiae..
What I normally do is also just looking for the information available on the web specially on regional studies, but the question is some of the specimen are not always from the region since I am working on alien species as well..So things get complex sometimes.
Anyhow, from your answer I feel like that my approach towards sponge species identification is not that wrong as I thought…So thank you for sharing your ideas with me!
Dr Oum Kalthoum Ben Hassine, Thank you very much for sharing these sources with me!
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology