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On the Structure of Calcareous Sponge Spicules

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Fossil and Recent Sponges

Abstract

Calcareous sponge spicules are composed of calcite (Sollas 1885) admixed with magnesium, sodium, strontium and sulphate. The magnesium content is species-specific and has been found to vary from 1.25–3.15%, or 5.2–12.9 M% MgCO3 (Jones and Jenkins 1970). It also increased with spicule size when different types of spicules were compared in two of these species. The spicules in addition contained traces of barium, manganese, lithium and silicon, the latter probably as contaminating quartz. Water and iron oxide have also been detected, at 3.14% and 0.26% respectively, by Bütsehli (1908), in spicules of Leucandra aspera. Calcareous sponge spicules are thus composed of impure magnesian calcite. In addition, each is a single crystal with crystalline continuity throughout. There is also a precise relationship between the directions of the spicule rays and the crystallographic axes of the spicule calcite (von Ebner 1887; Jones 1954a, 1954b, 1955a, 1970, 1984).

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Authors
  1. P. W. Ledger
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  2. W. C. Jones
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Paläontologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Schwendener Straße 8, 1000, Berlin 33, Germany

    Joachim Reitner  & Helmut Keupp  & 

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ledger, P.W., Jones, W.C. (1991). On the Structure of Calcareous Sponge Spicules. In: Reitner, J., Keupp, H. (eds) Fossil and Recent Sponges. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75656-6_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75656-6_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75658-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75656-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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