Abstract
Porifera is a primarily marine phylum comprising more than 15,000 species. The successful and wide adaptive radiation of freshwater sponges (Haplosclerida: Spongillina) has resulted in the colonization of an extremely wide variety of habitats at all latitudes. Colonization is dated back to the Mesozoic, and the mono- or poly-phyletism of Spongillina, and the number of potential sponge invasions into freshwater is still under debate. Living freshwater sponges belong to 45 genera in six families for a total of 219 species. The highest diversity, at the scale of zoogeographic regions, is recorded from the Neotropical (65 species), Palaearctic (59 species), and Afrotropical regions (49 species). Endemic freshwater sponge species are 103 (47%) out of 219. All species belonging to the families Lubomirskiidae, Metschnikowiidae, and Malawispongiidae are endemic. Endemic species among the other families are 72% for Potamolepidae, 38% for Spongillidae, and 32% for Metaniidae. Data on some wide geographic areas are scattered and fragmentary if not almost completely lacking. Species richness is probably underestimated and doubtless destined to increase with further research.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. R. Manconi is grateful to the organizers of the workshop “A global Assessment of Animal Diversity in Freshwater” for their kind invitation and financial support. Research supported in part by the Italian Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MIUR-PRIN 2004057217 ‘Zoogeography of Mediterranean-Southern African disjunct distributions by a multimethod approach’), the European program INTERREG Sardinia-Corsica-Tuscany on Biodiversity, Università di Sassari and Università di Genova.
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Guest editors: E. V. Balian, C. Lévêque, H. Segers & K. Martens
Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment
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Manconi, R., Pronzato, R. Global diversity of sponges (Porifera: Spongillina) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595, 27–33 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9000-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9000-x