Leucosolenida


Leucosolenida is an order of sponges in the class Calcarea and the subclass Calcaronea. Species in Leucosolenida are calcareous, with a skeleton composed exclusively of free spicules without calcified non-spicular reinforcements.
According to Systema Porifera, Lucosolenida contains 9 families, ranging from fully asconoid forms to fully leuconoid forms. These body plans are on a continuum based on an increasingly complex skeletal system and compartmentalized choanocytes. A few sources place non-asconoid families into a separate order, Sycettida. Leucosolenids have a poor fossil record, with only a few ambiguous grantiid fossils reported from the Jurassic and Carboniferous.

Families