Introduction

Abstract

During the period the sponges described herein were collected (1963–7), the author was a Research Associate at the Department of Geology, University of Illinois, participating in a research project on carbonate sediments of the Bimini area, directed by Prof. William W. Hay (Department of Geology, University of Illinois. now at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami) and supported by the National Science Foundation. The objective of this project was a study of the relationship between the carbonate sediments of the Bimini area and the benthonic fauna and flora, especially with regard to skeletal elements contributed to the sediment. The field work carried out at the Lerner Marine Laboratory of the American Museum of Natural History, on Bimini, amounted to about one month every year, from 1964 to 1967. Extensive collecting activity was coordinated with an ecological survey and mapping of the Bimini Lagoon, and thorough sampling of the sediments. Laboratory work at the University of Illinois concentrated on the study of the skeletal elements of these marine organisms, using light, polarized light, phase-contrast and electron microscopy. Elements readily recognized even as fragments by their micro- and ultrastructure are being used as tracers to study the contribution of various organic communities to calcarenite and calcilutite deposits (Hay, Wise, and Stieglitz, 1970).